Blog a la Cart

This weekend, we celebrated Auntie Kimmy’s 30th birthday. More photos to come of the tea party turned garden party turned tiki bar bonanza (three fetes in one – it was indeed awesome), but today is Kimmy’s actual 30th birthday, so I wanted to share my toast from Saturday’s celebrations.

My life would not be the same without this woman. She is my Day 791 (since that’s how many days it took for her to arrive in my life).

I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for coming together to celebrate Kimmy. When I was explaining to people that I was putting together a sit down tea party slash garden party for my little sister’s 30th birthday, I was on the receiving end of many quizzical looks. All of us in this space, however, aren’t surprised in the least.

In fact, Kimmy has been owed a tea party from the Cart family for over six years. In the final weeks of my pregnancy with Sunny, Kimmy hopped off a research sailboat sponsored by world famous scientist Craig Venter having just sailed through the Panama Canal (of course she did – her life is endlessly cool) to be with me in LA to get me through the hard final days of maternity and to be by my side during the birth of my first child. We played at the beach. We got pedicures. We ate spicy foods. We even scaled some cliffs to try and induce labor (terrible idea while 9 months pregnant with a 9lb baby). She kept me distracted and happy when I was my most anxious and uncomfortable. She wanted to make sure we had something every day to look forward to so I wouldn’t just stew with anticipation. Ever a lover of tea parties and flower gardens and art, she made reservations at the The Huntington Library Tea Room for the afternoon of Monday, May 18th.

Addison was born at 4:48pm on Monday, May 18th.

So today, I get to begin to payback the endless list of gifts and care she has bestowed upon me and my family. From dropping everything to be by my side at the birth of both my children, to sitting on the phone for hours with my mother discussing flower arrangements for my wedding (because I didn’t have the interest or patience and Kimmy’s got both in spades), to creating the most enviable baby shower banners, to west coast tea parties in honor of our engagement, to caring for our children and guaranteeing that they will always be the most fashionable and festive party hat clad kids around, she’s gone above and beyond from such a young age (which happens when your big sister decides to have all her major life milestones before the age of 30). And I’m only just scratching the surface.

To know and love Kimmy is to embrace a wonderful world of paradox. Fancy and salty.  Lily and carhartts. Ballerina and sailor. Quiet, humble and yet the world’s best, most dramatic storyteller. Wooden boat restorer and intricate paper snowflake maker. Scientist, mermaid, and expert setter of fancy tables. Independent and confident and the most loving, present, involved friend, sister, daughter and auntie. My family is endlessly blessed to call her our Kimmy for 30 years. And so today, we celebrate you.

Happy 30th birthday, Kimmy. We love you!