Weight Watchers Wednesday????

Thus far, this week has been INSANE. Alice's first birthday was today, my husband's was on Monday, and my mom has been in town all weekend and just left this morning. Therefore, Weight Watchers Wednesday has been postponed because we haven't had time to do anything properly. I will report one bit of WW related goodness: Matt, who heretofore has been painfully addicted to Coca Cola (and has been for as long as I've known him--over 15 years now), is making the switch to water and Coke Zero. I am so proud of him! And although we had a big meal on Monday for his birthday (I made fried scallops and hush puppies and banana cream pie--EEKADS), both of have lost about half a pound. Yea us! I demonstrated our loss to Matt with sticks of butter today. And then I proceeded to use all four sticks of butter in making cupcakes for Alice. Again, EEKADS.

Today was my daughter's first birthday, which was a BIG DEAL. Well, not so much big deal as in "Where do you want this bouncy house, ma'am?" kinda big deal. Just a big deal because I put a crazy amount of energy into it to make her feel special. That is all I really wanted for the day. We had a small party with just family members this evening, and let her open presents and have cake. She actually wasn't terribly interested in the cake--she took about three bites of her cupcake and then proceeded to rip it into tiny pieces. Everyone else, however, was there to eat. Here is what we had:

• sandwiches with Elie Krieger's curried chicken salad and turkey with cranberry cream cheese and arugula (the cream cheese spread is amazing, by the way, and would be a great thing to just keep in your fridge for when the mood/opportunity arises--I used neufchatel cheese to lighten it a smidge.)
• spinach dip in a slow cooker (yes, it is light, and yes, it is fabulous) with pita points
• hummus with carrots and Stacy's pita chips
• chips and salsa from the local Mexican restaurant
• Magnolia vanilla cupcakes with pink buttercream and yellow cupcakes with Real Simple's quick chocolate buttercream (I made these for Sam's first birthday as well, and he wanted me to make them for Alice, in addition to the pink fluffy Magnolia's I had planned on. I was happy to do this.)
• and yes, homemade strawberry marshmallows. I was so happy that these turned out, as I don't have a stand mixer, so making them was...challenging. Matt was so thrilled with them--he has bragged on me all day which has made me feel super awesome. And he has promised me a KitchenAid stand mixer. If I knew that making marshmallows was all I had to do to get one of those, I would have made them years ago!

I will return with pictures, hopefully tomorrow. For right now, I am going to lay on the couch and think about the past year and just how much fun it has been. It is so hard to believe that she is one now. Part of me wants her to be little forever--the soft little dumpling who rolls toward me in the night--but the other part can't wait for the rest of the ride.