Today, a wonderfully loving and supportive group gathered around my beautiful Emily to celebrate her very first year of life! We still can't believe she is one. It is just crazy to think that an entire year has passed since she was born! I am sure I will never really understand how quickly the lives of my children pass before me.
Before Emily joined us, we didn't have any summer birthdays in our immediate family. Seeing as that Emily's birthday is going to always fall near the end of school- I doubt there will ever be a lot of calm surrounding it! I also learned that it is a hard time to get people to come to a party because everyone heads out of town to start their summer fun! But you live and you learn and I know now that I need to give myself a little extra time to plan this sweet baby's birthday!
I was thrilled this year to learn that my sister, Jill and her son Kyle were going to be able to join us for the big event! They flew down from Washington to be with us and we were all so happy to see them! There was a special thrill around having cousin Kyle here to run around with which was great! My kids were occupied with a friend while Jill, Damien, and I rushed to get everything ready! We didn't have a theme for her party. Just lots of pink and sugar! We got a bouncy house for the backyard and had a pinata stuffed to the seems with candy. Sounds like fun to me! The one thing we didn't plan for was the heat. It was projected to hit at least 90 degrees today so we went out and got a covered tent to put the tables under. We weren't interested in seeing how many people would melt!
The focus of the day for me was on Emily. Sure, I wanted to show my guests a good time and feed them well, but more than anything- I wanted Emily to feel special. I knew she wouldn't know that it was HER day, but I wanted her to have fun and feel loved by everyone there. I made posters showing her growth over the past year, I got her a bubble machine so that she could laugh while trying to swat at the big bubbles, I had balloons, and made some of her favorite little munchies. I know that she didn't notice but I just wanted to do the very best I could for her. You only turn one once you know!
Everyone at the party had a great time. I will go as far to say that the highlight of the day was watching Emily eat her cake. I know she is my daughter and yes, I am insanely proud of her. That being said, please trust me when I say that she attacked her cake like no baby I've seen before! It was unreal! I have a video where she is just poking in a finger here, poking in a finger there, then she grabs a small handful of frosting and then out of nowhere she just pounces! I can't even do this moment justice in describing it! She just attacks the cake and it practically disintegrates! The kids all are laughing hysterically around her, adults are cracking up and Emily is just loving it! It was all fun and games until it got in her hair and eyes. After all that eating it was time for a Birthday Bath! She was not pleased. We got her cleaned and dressed and she made another appearance for gifts and the pinata. She had so much fun and I could tell she just didn't want it to stop!
The day was wonderful and the party was just exactly like I wanted it to be. I could've done without breaking my digital camera (I dropped it when taking pictures of the kids smacking the pinata) but every other element was wonderful. A lot of work? Yes. Worth all the time and effort for my BIG ONE YEAR OLD? Of course. Happy Birthday Emily!
1 comment:
love the photo of you and emily.
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