One Year Old in a FLASH!

My oh my, how time does fly!  How could one year have already gone by?!

That is what Emilie's birthday invitations read for her One Year Old in a FLASH birthday party.  We themed it with pictures everywhere and places to take pictures to remember the day.  And we thanked everyone for Emilie's "picture perfect" first year.

Since we are living at my parent's house now, we hosted the party there, in my parents sunroom and backyard.  It was the perfect setting and, (thank you Lord), we had the perfect weather to accompany the occasion.  I loved decorating everything in bright fun colors of hot pink, orange, lime green, turquoise and bright purple.  Jason took the day before the party off to smoke a 15 pound pork shoulder to make the most delicious pulled pork people at the party said they had ever tasted.  He made a fancy sauce to go with it, and I have to say, it was amazing.  My mom made her famous baked beans, my grandma made her delicious "GG cookies" as Marin calls them, Jason made a gourmet pasta salad, and we cooked up a ton of peas, because up until the day before the party, they were all Emilie would eat. Of course, with the ever changing likes and need-to-have-now-in-mass-quantity characteristics of  any toddler, Emilie refused to eat a single pea at her party. 

We made a giant frame out of 2X4's and I spray painted it hot pink and bought a whole bunch of photo props for the kids and adults to dress up and have their picture taken for Emilie's scrap book.  This was a real hit for everyone from age 2 to 62.  We had old school camera printed with Emilie's picture and again thanking everyone for making her first year picture perfect.  And we dug up pictures from Jason and my first birthday parties as well, just for kicks.

I made a photo wall of her month by month pictures with her pink bear and in that same chair (except when we were on vacation at 3 months and at my parents house at 12 months).  That is really fun to look at and see how much she's changed.  It really is amazing how much they learn in the first year.

We had a great time and I think the guests did too.  Emilie loved her cake (decorated with pictures of her made entirely by hand, out of chocolate).  The inside of the cake matched the color theme of the party, and let's just say that Emilie ate her cake and ice cream better than she ate her peas. 

We found a few days later that Emilie had an ear infection, so she was a little clingy at the party, but really she had a great time, and gave a lot of great big smiles for all of her friends and family.  She even bounced in the bounce house for a little bit!

It was a great day and a great celebration of our sweet little one year old Emmie cakes.  Happy Birthday, sweetheart.  We love you so much!

Birthday Girl!

The day of Emilie's birthday was a great one!  I was, of course, nostalgic as I recounted the events of the night before and then the moment when we finally met her.  The moment Jason started calculating the expenses of four proms, two weddings, eight homecomings, and undoubtedly a lifetime full of princess talk and fashion tips. 

So on the day of Emilie's first birthday we had a fun filled day doing all of her favorite things!  After she and her sister donned matching dresses, which is one of Marin's favorite things, we dropped Marin off at school and spread our birthday spirit by buying donuts and coffee for all of the workers at our house.  Then, my mom and I took Emilie on a nice walk in the stroller.  We decided to walk to the park, but by the time we arrived, Emilie was sound asleep.  She loves her stroller.  So we let her sleep and we finished our walk and arrived back at Grandma and Grandpa's house, where we sat out on the front porch enjoying the gorgeous day and the light breeze.  When Miss Emilie woke up, she was all smiles.  We played for a while until it was time to go pick Marin up from school, at which point Marin announced to everyone that it was her sister's birthday and broke out into song.  

Ice cream was next, because if you know anything about us by now, it's that we love ice cream.  We met the Mamminga girls at Grahams and Emilie got her own tiny cup of vanilla, and ate every single bite.  Atta girl.  Then we all headed to Wheeler Park, which we call special because it's big and fun and different.  Emilie did a lot of swinging on the swings and also went down the baby slide and okay, truth be told, probably ate her fair share of grass as well.  But she loved it.  When everyone was rubbing their eyes, we headed home for naps. 

Shortly after naps, Aunt Lindsay arrived and Daddy came home from work shortly after that.  Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Lindsay and us all had a birthday dinner together in the sunroom.  After dinner we ate delicious and terribly messy cupcakes that turned everyone's mouth crazy colors, but it was super fun for Emilie who dove into the frosting with both fists. 

From there it was straight to the bath to wash off the hot pink frosting covering her from head to toe.  But she didn't go to bed without a quiet snuggle whereby I told her about the day that she was born, and reminded both her and myself what a miracle she is.  And how lucky our lives are because she's in it.  Then we said our prayers and sang our special song... and she was no doubt dreaming about cupcakes and ice cream shortly there after.