It was ten o' clock in the morning with just a hint of a breeze and bold sunshine peeking out from the clouds. It was a perfect day at the park, at least as perfect as spring days ever got in Lima with rising Ohio humidity. The park was unusually quiet for a Saturday, but it was pretty obvious why. It was the first birthday of Quinn Fabray's daughter.

Little Daphne Marie Fabray was adorable. She was a squishy little vision in yellow and pink, bouncing up and down as Kurt made cooing sounds next to her, reaching in for tiny grabbing fingers that smelled like coconut sunscreen. The little checkered pink dress had been a gift from Finn's mom, who had been at the hospital with Finn as he had paced like a nervous father, and the park had been a gift from her parents.

"You don't have to do that Kurt."

Kurt Hummel looked up at Quinn, who had taken the day off of her weekend stocking job to lug a big case of soda into a cooler near a park bench that was covered with a festive cream tablecloth featuring duckies with umbrellas. "But I like to. She's so cute."

Quinn chuckled as she set down the box and ripped the side out so she could start laying the sodas into the ice, water, and salt mixture that would keep them cold. She had gotten the idea from an episode of Mythbusters that she had caught after Ms. Pillsbury had gushed about them finding a way to keep soda cooler for a longer period of time. "And she's quite fond of you, Uncle Kurt."

Kurt put one hand on his hip, the other put to good use tickling Daphne in the stroller. "You know, I used to think I was too young to be an uncle."

Mercedes called from the short ladder she was standing on near a tree, where she was hanging the last of the pink Chinese lanterns that were blowing softly in the breeze all around the picnic tables. "Well, you thought you were too old to hang decorations."

Kurt faked an aghast stare. "Daphne needed me!"

Quinn rolled her eyes as Mercedes stepped down off the ladder, folding it up to take it back to her dad's van. "Please, you just didn't want to get up on a ladder in those tight blue pants of yours."

Kurt snapped his index finger in her general direction. "You're just jealous."

Quinn folded her arms. "Do I have to separate you two?"

As if on cue, Mercedes pointed in Kurt's direction as he continued to wag his finger. "She started it!" "He started it!"

Quinn shook her head, heading over to check on her little one. Daphne squealed with delight when mom appeared out of nowhere. "What do you think Daphne? Think I should have chosen better role models?"

Kurt shook his head. "At least the dress isn't dirty yet."

Quinn sat down, putting Daphne in her lap. "Can't expect it to last the day. Between the cake and one of the boys deciding they want to take her on the swings, I don't think her first party dress is going to stand much fighting form."

Mercedes fished into a bag near the cooler, grabbing cups to put on the table. "I really did think you were gonna kill Finn and Rachel for that."

Quinn shrugged. "Their hearts were in the right place. And Ms. Hudson was always telling me horror stories about mud pies and bath time messes and well, I guess I just had to desensitize myself."

Kurt took the plates Mercedes was handing to him with the pastel florals on the rim. "Dad says I was never a dirty child. I used to wrinkle my nose at the very idea of mud pies."

Mercedes and Quinn nodded together. "We can imagine."

"Imagine what?" Brittany walked up, holding a long, covered platter in her arms.

"Kurt as a kid." Mercedes responded as she moved the plates so that Brittany could slide the long platter onto the main food table.

Quinn moved around the table so that Daphne could give Brittany a hug. Brittany lit up as she accepted the baby's hug and then Quinn's thanks with a "happy to do it" sort of smile.

"Happy Birthday, little Daphne!"

Quinn looked over at the covered platter with a thrill of discovery. "Can we see it?"

Brittany nodded. "I hoped you would want to. I spent all this morning finishing it."

Quinn gasped as Brittany lifted the lid for the reveal of the vanilla cake with lavender icing, spread out with flower sprinkles that spelled out Happy Birthday, Daphne! The exclamation mark was even in the shape of a one.

"It's perfect!" Kurt chimed in.

Brittany was pleased. "Thanks. Its nana's recipe. My birthday gift to you. Its the tradition for the first year girls of our family."

Kurt gasped. "I feel like I'm gonna cry."

"Don't let your make-up run, Hummel."

Puck strolled up in his football jersey with Santana around one arm carrying a lavender bag and a pinata of Dora the Explorer while Puck himself toted a big bag of charcoal. Matt and Mike weren't far behind with a box of burgers and two wrapped presents. They were doing rock paper scissors over who was going to use the tongs. It looked like Matt was about to grab the tongs and play sword fight with Mike.

Quinn nodded in the group's direction. "Thanks for bringing the burgers."

Matt pointed over to the grill with his shoulder. "Welcome. We'll just head over in that direction. I'll come say hey once me and Mike got the charcoal going hot."

Mercedes pursed her lips as Santana found herself grabbing brightly colored boxes handed to her. "You guys do know how to barbecue right? My daddy was barbecuing champion three years in a row for our church at the family council picnic." Kurt added in a "you go, girl" for good measure.

Puck snorted through his nose, dropping the charcoal so that he could round up the gifts. "Please, these my boys. They got it."

Brittany giggled. "They're sword fighting. But, you know, with tongs and spatulas."

Noah rolled his eyes. Setting the gifts and piñata into Santana's arms again, he picked up the bag of charcoal and headed to the grill. "Be cool guys! Be cool!"

Quinn put Daphne back in the carrier and put the shade down as the sun extended itself beyond the cloud which had blocked a good portion of the sun's rays. Noah had woken her up at seven to have birthday pancakes this morning and she had been fiercely setting down ground rules for the day ever since. He admired the dedication to her daughter but sometimes she thought he was trying too hard to not be his deadbeat dad. Way too hard.

"Hey Q, Little D. Great day for a party in the park." Santana arranged the boxes and bag alongside the empty seats on the opposite side of the bench.

Quinn nodded. "Thanks for coming. How are things going with the Cheerios this year?"

Santana shook her head. "Not the same without you. There's the little blond upstart named Megan that's trying to make herself all big and bad and popular...it's actually kind of fierce, come to think of it." Noticing the look in Quinn's eyes, Santana backtracked. "But I laid down the law. Nobody's ever gonna fill your shoes while I'm around, Q."

Quinn shook her head. "You don't have to do that."

Santana folded her arms. "Its as much for me as for you. How long have the sodas been in the ice? Is that salt?"

Quinn nodded as she looked down into the tub. "Yep. Ms. P was talking about that episode of Myth busters a few days ago."

Brittany piped in. "Dad loves that show!"

Kurt walked over to where Santana was now sitting. "Wanna hang up the piñata?"

"Go ahead." Santana finished the phrase off with a shrug.

"Okay..." Kurt took the end of Dora's head, leaving it to dangle off the end of the string.

Mercedes grabbed a lower portion of the string. "C'mon. I'll help you put it up. Wouldn't want to get a split in those tight pants of yours."

Rachel and Finn walked up, a few gifts between them. "We're not late, are we?"

Quinn stood up, dusting herself off as a natural reaction to Finn walking towards her. "Not at all. Welcome to the party!"

Finn nodded, Rachel clinging to his arm. "Looks really good, guys."

Kurt and Mercedes called from the swinging Dora piñata. "Thanks!"

Rachel began to slide her gifts alongside the table with the rest. "Sorry we're so late. We had to go to Mr. Schue's house to get his presents. He wanted to come..."

Quinn nodded. "No, I understand. We talked about, said it wouldn't be right if he showed up since I'm still technically a student for another half a year. Its okay."

Mercedes walked over to the cooler to test the sodas. "Ms. P made some bomb yellow cupcakes though."

Rachel nodded in agreement. "Indeed....are those guys gonna be...."

Finn stepped back a bit when he saw the flame jump up from the grill. "Yeah, its just the grill getting warmed up. Maybe I should go over after I say high to..."

Quinn met his eyes. Finn was still trying to not say "my daughter."

Regardless of what he was trying not to say, he leaned down to look at the little girl. "Hey there, stranger. You being good for mom?"

Kurt appeared over Finn's shoulder. "She's been a perfect angel."

"I'm gonna go check on your burgers, kiddo. Be back in a second."

Finn sauntered toward the grill without addressing Kurt, trying to keep the little lump in his throat from coming too far north.

Rachel broke the silence with the introduction of a camera or three spilling onto the table. "I, um, I know you've got a really ridiculously nice camera, but our family likes the candid shot so I bought a couple of disposables..."

Quinn surprised Rachel with a hug. "Thanks for coming. And bringing Finn."

Rachel smiled as Quinn pulls away. "He misses Noah. He doesn't even try to deny it anymore."

Mercedes picked up a disposable camera and started winding it up. "These little things will be great for taking pictures of the cake before we cut into it."

Kurt nodded in return. "Shame we have to. It fits Daphne's personality to a tee."

Quinn nodded along in agreement. Even just one years old, she saw a lot of herself in her daughter. Since cheer leading time had become free time, Quinn had found a renewed love for plants and gardening and was thinking of getting a botany degree someday and opening up a nursery. You could see that interest in Daphne's eyes anytime dandelion seeds blew by at the park or a duck waddled. Pretty soon, she'd be crawling around after the ducklings and Quinn was going to have to get really protective so she wouldn't get bit.

Noah held the burgers aloft as he reentered the picnic area. "First round's on the house. How's my princess doing?"

Kurt piped in on cue. "Fine as always."

Noah made a throat in his noise. "Not you, Hummel."

Brittany grabbed for another little camera on the table. "Before we dig in, we should do candle lighting."

Rachel opened her bag, rummaging around. "Right, we did get the candles you wanted. Had to go to three stores to find them."

"Overachieve much?"

Quinn shot Santana a look. "You didn't have to go to all that trouble. We didn't need singing candles."

Rachel pointed to the guy jogging over with Mike and Matt. "Finn's idea."

Noah set down the burgers. "Whatever. Lets just light those suckers up so that we can deal with food and then the piñata."

Finn spoke while he reached into the cooler for a soda. "Quinn, want to do pictures later by the swing set too? And the turtle?"

Quinn nodded. "Plenty of time. Dad's got the park for us today, booked a private event."

"Cool."

Noah's eyes lit up as he thought about the work he had put into the game. "She's gonna love the trinkets in the piñata."

Quinn sighed, not wanting this again during the birthday. They were worse than divorced parents. "We'll decide after candles and cake, boys."

Kurt smiled. "I love birthday cake; absolutely no calories. Can I get an amen?"

Several fingers went up in the air. "A-men!"