4 Whole Years.

Iain celebrated his birthday last month. There were cupcakes. Iain insisted on chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry cupcakes, so his Nana and I made three batches (that's 6 dozen if you're keeping track).

Two dozen vanilla cake with chocolate ganache, two dozen vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles, and two dozen strawberry cake (vanilla cake with fresh diced strawberries mixed in) with cream cheese frosting with a strawberry on top.

It seems like a lot of cupcakes, but we invited 25 kids, some of whom had siblings, plus parents. So if you had 20 kids, each with two parents or one parent and a sibling...that's 60 cupcakes. And you wouldn't want to run out.

The party took over Jump Around Utah, a paradise of bouncy castles. Iain has been a guest at four or five parties there this year (the staff says sometimes they see the same kids at three different Saturday parties). He and his classmates lovelovelove it. Above, he and The Dad climb onto the huge central floor pillow.

And here he climbs the stairs to a slide...I knew Nana would enjoy the slide and would slide with Iain (see below)

Because Nana has always liked to slide with Iain. Below, Nana and Iain sliding in September, 2009. It's, like, a tradition at this point.

This time Iain slid with Nana and slid by himself. Mostly, he needed help getting to the top of the stairs. Once there, he let gravity do its thing.

Eventually, we lit a cupcake and everyone sang Happy Birthday. He seemed bemused by the cupcake, perhaps because this was his first birthday party (we don't really celebrate birthdays with parties). He'd sung to other kids, but never been the center of that attention himself.

I took the barely-used candle to decorate my string-of-pearls plant. Fetching, don't you think?

But let's get to the real point of any party: presents. Below, the aftermath. One thing I like here in Utah is that many parents choose to open presents at home. That is, the party does not include a gift-opening session.

Much better, I think. So we carted home Iain's loot and he got to work tearing off wrapping and pulling off bows.

Several puzzles, two kites, bubble stuff and many games later, Iain could hardly comprehend his fortune. He kept turning from one gift to another, trying to decide what to do.