Kayla’s Birthday Retrospective: Baby To Preschool

by Sandra Foyt on April 20, 2008 in family, tradition | 10 Comments

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On this day, twelve years ago, while Bob Marley’s Exodus jammed in the background, another rebel was born in New York City.

A stubborn child, even then, you held out your entry into this world until just after midnight – officially on April 20th, the first day to fall under the Taurus sign.

Kayla, that was your last intimately small birthday party.

One Year Old Birthday Party – Under The Sea

The next year, for your first birthday party, your Abuela came all the way from Puerto Rico to visit us in the home we were sharing with Auntie Diana in southern California.

Heather, your babysitter and our neighbor, helped decorate our Under The Sea party by hanging huge fish cutouts, colorful streamers, and Cousin Kathy’s pinata – the first of a cherished birthday tradition. You received lots of presents, but your favorite was a Cabbage Patch “baby” from Heather and Di that joined us everywhere, even to the Caribbean.

Two Year Old Birthday Party – Bug-Happy in Kayla’s Garden

By this time, Heather and I were birthday party pros.

We used the instructions in a Family Fun article to create ladybug invitations, hand-crafted hats, a candy-filled flower cake, flower-petal plates, and flower-pot party favors.

At the party, the kids quietly decorated egg-carton caterpillars for about 2 minutes, and ran around on a sugar-high the rest of the time.

Three Year Old Birthday Party – Kayla’s Zoo Safari

By your 3rd Birthday, we had moved to New York. Heather was too far away to help with the party, but we had our NY family: Natasha, Grandma and Grandpa, and Joe with his parents.

Daddy made an elaborate zoo cage cake with animal cupcakes, while Mommy and Natasha created zoo activity centers: a Petting Zoo, a Marine Life Exhibit with Feed the Seal station, and the Zoo Maintenance Truck.

During the party, the kids visited the “exhibits” before going on a safari to find hidden animals in the grass. They kept the small, plastic animals along with the party favors: animal mugs filled with animal crackers.

Surprisingly, the real hit of the party was the simplest to produce: Joe and Daddy’s spontaneous puppet show about a monkey who lost his banana.