It's not a party until someone spits up.

So, we had a birthday party for Kimchi this weekend. Obviously, it was my first stab at hosting a kid's birthday party. I am always stressed out when I entertain because I want everyone to have fun and this was no exception. We don't have a mansion, so space was a big issue and I was freaking out about not having enough places to sit and enough food and whatever but in the end, it all worked out. We had lots of kids here and I got to meet my friend's little baby who is ADORABLE and Max's little friend Louie, who is also from Korea, came to see him and I think everyone had a chance to interact with him at some point. Here he is chilling with his homies:

He did really well despite missing a nap and remained pretty agreeable all day. The $20 I slipped him before the party must have done the trick.

The first birthday is a mucho big dealo in Korea, mostly because it wasn't too long ago that kids may not make it to their first birthday, and there are a few traditions and rituals that we wanted to honor. I was supposed to pray to a mountain god and eat a white rice cake on his actual birthday, but I had no cake and I don't know any mountain gods, so that one we kinda skipped over. In Korea, they rent out halls and have these big parties called tols (or dols) and they are like mini wedding receptions with lots of food and even an MC. This is big business, people. Our's was quite a bit smaller but we did have rice cakes and kimchi for our guests to try. (A funny side note with the kimchi. I bought it at a Korean grocery and when I opened it, you could smell it from a mile away and everyone was like "eww, that stinks like hot garbage" but when I put it out, the brave people to try it were like "THIS IS DELICIOUS!" See, don't judge a fermented cabbage dish by it's smell. Well, maybe you should. Anyway...) The main things we wanted to make sure we did were to put his little outfit on him and have him choose from The Tray of Destiny. That's not the official name but I like it so I'm keepin' it.

The outfit was given to us by his foster mom, and while it was 4 sizes too big, he looked so cute in it I wanted to EAT HIM. See:

After his costume change, we brought him to the tray and he was supposed to choose from the following:

pencil - he will be a scholar

ruler - he will work with his hands

money - he will be wealthy

thread - he will have a long life

rice cake - he will have many children

Here's how it all went down:

Here I am as he is GOING FOR THE MONEY and then after he picks. Clearly, I am happy.

Good boy! I mean, whatever makes him happy is all that matters. Yeah, sure.

Anyway, on to the really important part, THE CAKE. I keed, I keed. Making his cake was also stressful because I have way too many things to choose from and my brain was on overdrive so I ended up going with a classic standby, the robot. More specifically, a birthday bot. I made it in panels dusted with a silver dust to make it look kinda metallic and then I added "welds" at all the seams. I still have the head left sitting on my counter. It was chocolate with vanilla filling and it was oh so delicious.

Here we are singing to him. He had no clue what the hell we were doing yet he was intoxicated by all the attention to the point that he forgot he still had his hat on. He hated that hat and yet the hat made everyone clap so VIVA LA HAT.

I hope we did his Korean heritage proud and I'm excited to be able to send these pics to his foster mom so she can see her gift put to good use. I hope everyone had fun because we sure did.