Journeys›Photograph

Claire's Second Birthday at Home

·Orinda, California·#bay area#family#birthday#kids#cake
A person and a child wearing a pink birthday crown sit beside a gift bag on a light brown couch.

Second birthday, and we kept it at home in the living room rather than doing anything bigger. She wore a pink paper crown all evening — construction paper, stars, balloon stickers, "Happy 2nd Birthday Claire" written across the front in marker — and it stayed on through presents on the couch, which came in a gift bag covered in cupcakes and candles that she liked almost as much as what was inside it.

The cake went on the coffee table: white frosting, pink roses, her name written across the top in icing, one candle. She stood over it for a while before we lit anything, hands hovering, and had already gotten frosting on her fingers by candle time.

She ate her slice off a plastic fork mostly by herself and wore a fair amount of it — green icing at the corners of her mouth, crumbs down the front of the apple-print dress. Cleanup afterward took longer than the cake did.

A smiling adult and a child wearing a pink 2nd birthday crown sit with a striped gift bag.A young child in a polka-dot dress looks at a white birthday cake with pink icing, coral flowers, and a candle.A young child in a polka-dot shirt looks at a white birthday cake with pink decorations in a living room.A smiling child with icing on their chin sits behind a white birthday cake with pink roses and a "1" candle.A young child with frosting on their face and hands smiles behind a white birthday cake with a pink candle.A young child with a plastic fork in their open mouth and food smudges on their face.A young child with cake frosting on their face smiles while holding a fork in their mouth.A young child with a messy face and a fork in their mouth smiles at the camera.

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