Gater's 2nd Birthday

Gater had an Aussie-style birthday party.

I had to put the camera back to color settings for her party, of course!

Mini-quiches, curried egg sandwiches, cucumber-cream-cheese sandwiches, pumpkin scones, devonshire cream scones, homemade sausage rolls, lamingtons, fairy bread, and other assorted lovely Aussie-style edibles were laid on the party table. A very delicious Sunshine Punch (in the pitcher) has made many appearances on our table since then. I believe the recipe used to be on Rhonda Jean's Down--to--Earth site, but I haven't been able to find it since then. The basic ingredients in ours, for a gallon, were: two cans of Jumex apricot nectar, a heaping tablespoon scoop of frozen apple juice concentrate, a good splash of lemon juice, a big can (48oz?) of pineapple juice, 2L of Sprite or ginger ale, and if there is any space left, top with orange juice. :-)

The only things missing were party pies and those little red sausages in sauce that we used to love so much.

Obviously, it was a good time.

Funny to think that less than one year ago, Gater was sitting in this high chair, wearing a bib! She is way too grown up for that now.

It never seems like we have bought that many presents until everyone else comes and the kids start opening them all. Then, all of a sudden, it turns into a lot of stuff. :-)

This was truly love at first sight. Baby Susie (Shooshie) has rarely left the Gater's side since. She's been lovingly adorned with all manner of sticky decoration, dressed, undressed, hugged, kissed, thrown, remorsefully sobbed over, tucked in, dunked, and fed; but she's never been forgotten for more than ten seconds.

In keeping with the tea-party theme, Gater received a sweet table-and-chair set, and a whole lot of dishes, cups, cutlery, pots and pans -- and the most adorable vintage hand-embroidered tablecloth, from the antique store.

Gater has enjoyed all of her presents over this past year. You hardly see her without her Minnie Mouse purse -- especially the phone, she LOVES the phone -- and her table, chairs, cooking items and "chocolates" get almost daily use. She was a little rough on the breakable dishes at two years of age, so we put them up for a little while, but she's much more mature now, so it may be time to get them down for her again. Bert loves playing tea party with Gater, too, so it's a win-win.

This is a very poor picture of a very fabulous concoction. A mixed-fruit, whipped-cream-topped-with-passionfruit pavlova. This was the Gater's birthday cake, and I ought to have made two.

The three gorgeous girls. We're so proud of them!

Our sweet Katy, two years old already! And -- that was nearly a year ago. How is it that sometimes the days never seem to end, and yet the years fly by!