Gretchen's Birthday, Uncensored

For those of you who have been on the edge of your chairs, waiting to hear about Gretchen's next tooth, today was the day!  Her second front top tooth FINALLY made it's arrival this morning, hallelujah!

Aside from that excitement, as I was updating Gretchen's baby book today, I realized two things; 1) I take a LOT of pictures and 2) I post a LOT of really great, happy pictures, potentially skewing an outsider's view of our lives.  There are also a LOT of really funny pictures that probably more accurately capture the feeling of certain events.  With this in mind, here are some of the "outtakes" from Gretchen's birthday party that I thought deserved a second look.

Here is what happens when we take our eyes off of Gretchen for a moment.  My friend Milena hilariously captured our little mischievous one:

Yep, that's our daughter with a big, dangerous fork.  I'm pretty sure she was searching for more cake on the table, but she was pretty excited with this discovery.  In other news, Gretchen can reach most heights in our apartment now - be warned!

Here is our happy furious birthday girl after we removed her demolished cupcake.  She was not a happy camper.

And neither was her friend Claire.  I'm not sure what happened here, but what a sad face!  I think it was the hour in most children's birthday parties where there was just a collective break down.

Here is Gretchen's friend Lilly chomping away at a balloon:

And Talia, enjoying Gretchen's new Daisy Duck figure:

And now Gretchen enjoying another one of her new toys.  I'm pretty sure our entire living room was in someone's mouth at some point during the afternoon.

Including the fireplace!  This is where Kia chose to hang out during the party.

And here is one of the 32 pictures we took in an attempt to get our little ones in a shot together.  Notice the multiple arms and distraction techniques we are employing in order to get everyone to sit still.  What you can't see is Milena laying on the floor making sure that no one falls forward onto the floor.

And here is another example of what happens when we take our eyes off of Gretchen for a moment.  She also proceeded to pick up the glass on the coffee table and drop it in the middle of the floor a second later.

Lastly, here is the best gift of all (for now), the box from our new trash can.  She had a blast with this box - crawling through it one way and the other.  It occupied the better part of a day.

I hope you enjoyed this more accurate view into our lives.  With luck, you have a box at home that brings you as much joy as our trash can box brought us!