Bring on the Cake!

After the games Matt and I said a few words. Matt wrote a poem for Meredith called "A Gift" and read that. I had a few things I wanted to say but I got through maybe the first line and had to stop before I really even started. I was just too emotional thinking about everything that we had gone through this year and thinking about Meredith laying in the hospital bed at this exact time last year and seeing Meredith now so happy and healthy, well it was just too much for me. I couldn't read it without crying, so Matt had to read it for me. What can I say, it was a very emotional weekend.

After this we finally got to do the cake! I made one main little cake for Meredith to destroy and for the rest I just did cupcakes(and a third little cake just in case we need more, I am sorry to say we didn't forgot to get pictures of this cake). The cupcakes were something fun and different, and they don't really have cupcakes in Italy. People enjoy "American" desserts here in Italy and people really did enjoy the cupcakes. My prediction for Meredith was that she was going to destroy the cake. Initially, Meredith just stared at the cake, not sure where to start or if it was okay to get into it. I had to help her out a bit by getting some of the flowers out of her way and after she discovered the actual cake (& icing, yum!), she was happy as you can see from the pictures.

I forgot to mention that Meredith turned one at 3pm Italy time, which was 9am Lafayette time. At this time, we wanted to do something special so we popped some champagne in celebration of Meredith. Champagne is traditionally served at birthday parties in Italy, but it usually is during the cake. We decided to do it early for this reason, another emotional time at the party for me. Whoo.. I don't know how I got though the day, really...

3pm Champange toast for Meredith

Cake Table

I made 2 photo albums full of pictures we took during Meredith's 7 weeks in the hospital. We had these on display on her cake table. The beautiful roses were from Giovanna's mothers garden, perfect for our table.

Meredith got 2 birthdays songs, one in English, Happy Birthday of course, then one in Italian, Tanti Auguri...

Yes, crying yet again...
Hmm, where shall I start? Are they actually going to let me eat this? Mom, are you feeling ok?


Sharing her cake with Mama
Getting down to business