Aubrey's Tiger Birthday Party!

We opted not to do a birthday party for Aubrey's first birthday, considering that she 1) wouldn't understand, 2) doesn't have any family in the area, and 3) didn't really have actual friends or play with other kids so much as near them.

But a year makes a big difference in a small person's life, so this year we invited a few friends for a tiger-themed birthday party. After all, Teetagee (Mr. T.) is Aubrey's favorite, and she's always loved tigers!

I had this whole vision of only black and orange foods, but Daniel insisted we have a little more variety than those parameters allowed. Psh, party pooper.

Still, I did manage to work in a number of orange and black foods--orange juice, chocolate milk (an Aubrey favorite), Cheetos, black and orange Sixlets (another Aubrey favorite), olives, orange bell pepper slices, mini carrots, cheddar slices (again, an Aubrey fave), and blue corn tortilla chips (not quite black, but close enough).

Another view of the spread:

I also did a Pinterest thing! And I didn't even mess it up. Granted, it was really easy, but still. I present tiger-face clementines:

And last but not least, we made a tiger pizza. I had grand plans to cut the pepperoni pieces to make a better nose and a much better mouth. I also wanted to incorporate olives for the eyes, etc. But when everyone started arriving and the pizza hadn't even gotten into the oven yet, I had to simplify. So this is what we had.

Yeah, it's a little sad. But whenever Aubrey sees the picture of it on my phone (she loves going through my photo gallery), she says, "It's a tiger!" So I guess that's what really matters, right? Right.

Unfortunately, I was so busy doing food, eating food, and trying to get Aubrey to eat food, that I didn't get many photos of the eating and mingling portion of the party. Like, I got one. And only one of Aubrey's friends is in it. And he's blurry.

After food, we played Pin the Tail on the Tiger--as much as you can do any organized thing with a bunch of toddlers. Daniel Photoshopped an awesome poster (which unfortunately had printing problems just above her head) for the event. 

And again, I didn't get photos of all the cute kids putting their tails on. I was too busy handing out said tails and trying to keep some sense of order. But the finished product is fun. 

After the game, we did cake. I had this whole vision of a tiger-striped cake, but the orange batter was not at all orange, and the stripes just ended up as blobs. Oh well; it's cake.

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Aubrey proved to be the most amusing part of the day. She ducked her head down and got very serious, almost like she was embarrassed. Luckily, we got video.

(Incidentally, she has since become obsessed with watching this video. She claps at the end. It's adorable.)

However, after all of that, I don't know if she even ate any cake. Maybe a little...

My biggest regrets were that I didn't get a proper photo of Aubrey in her tiger outfit (The hood has tiger ears!) and that I didn't do something cute with her hair (I just ran out of time for that one). But those are minor things. Aubrey had a lot of fun, and that's what matters!