Madelyn's 1st Birthday

Really? Today is my birthday party?

Wow! All of my friends are coming and I get to eat a cupcake!

Yeah! I'm so excited!

It's hard to believe that my niece, Madelyn, just turned one! I was fortunate enough to make it out to Arizona to celebrate in the festivities. Madelyn's birthday theme was "cupcakes" because she is the cutest little cupcake around!

I had the honor of making the cupcakes, with the help of my mom who did a lot of the prep work, for the party. My friend, Eileen even made some cupcake cookies as party favors.

In addition to eating cupcakes and cupcake cookies, there were also cupcake games........

Pin the candle on the cupcake..........

and a cupcake pinata.

Madelyn got some help from her Dad, pulling the pinata string.

My nephew, Owen won both games. His candle was closest to the top of the cupcake, and he collected the most candy from the pinata -- much to the chagrin of his mom!

After the games were finished everyone got a lesson from Madelyn on how to eat a cupcake.

Cupcake Eating 101

First, everyone sings Happy Birthday and then you have your mom help you blow out the candle.

Next, you have to taste the frosting to make sure it's good enough to eat.

Then you pick it up and take a bite. Hmmm.....yummy!

Then you have your mom break it up into pieces so it's easier to eat.Then you mush it into your hands and all over the tray, and do a little victory dance for conquering the cupcake!