Another summer rolls to an end.

I start back at work next week. I am still mostly in denial about this, although I shed two or three tears earlier before I pulled myself together. I just wish everything in the world was free so no one had to work. Who invented this work concept anyway?! I know I am certainly way luckier than most that I even get summers off, so I will try not to sound too ungrateful about the time off work that I've been given.

It has been an amazing summer. And to be honest it's seemed like the longest one I've ever had, so that's a great thing, but also makes it harder than ever to return to work. I'm so lucky that Mr. D (who is also a teacher) and I were able to spend 2 months at home with our baby girl and watch her grow and become a toddler.

Baby D's 1st birthday was on the 28th, and her party was on the 30th. It was a HUGE success. We ordered our invitations from this shop on Etsy. She was AMAZING to work with and I can't rave enough about how fabulous the invitations and other things we got were. Everyone loved them. We went with the Sweet Shoppe them and had an all-pink candy buffet, pink cupcakes, ice cream with yummy toppings, and strawberry cake.

I originally had planned on making Baby D's smash cake from scratch. I've never given her more than a small taste of sweet things at a time, and I didn't see the point in starting now. I decided to make her a sugar free carrot cake using ingredients like unsweetened applesauce and apple juice. I'm sure you can imagine how it turned out. Disgusting. I knew I would have to give in and just order one from the store. I'm glad I did, it was super cute and way better tasting. She only gets one first birthday, so why not let her live a little and have some sugar? She didn't eat very much anyway. What she did eat she loved, though!

The one thing I am really bummed about this summer is that Baby D hasn't walked yet! I know as soon as we put her back into daycare she'll probably take her first steps there, and it actually makes me a little sick to my stomach to think about missing out on that! But I know she will enjoy being back with her "peers," because she just loves other kids so much and she thrives around them. So it's for the best anyway.

I am going to try to be more diligent about posting in this blog. I hate that I always go so long without posts. There's really no excuse aside from utter laziness.