A happy birthday post

I meant to save these pictures for Wednesday, but Wednesday came and went and I missed it. So here you go.

Well, I swore I wouldn't do a theme, but I gave in and did a jungle theme.




I made two banners. This one has monthly pictures of Lily.

And this banner is rather self-explanatory. Tere and I made the cupcakes. We thought they were going to be a disaster because first the lemon cupcakes didn't really rise. I don't know what happened but they tasted OK. Then we had some trouble with the frosting. But I think they turned out really cute! It helped that I had the cute cupcake stand that Iris lent to me to display them.


Here's Lily in her cute birthday dress. She wore that headband for at least 10 seconds before whipping it off.

As you know, it was a pool party. The pool has a big slide. I figured it was too big for her, but Tere says they took her nephews down when they were Lily's age, just lift them up at the bottom of the slide so they don't go in. It worked perfectly and Lily had a blast.



There was a small roll of thunder and we all got kicked out of the pool. Just in time for cake!

Lily insisted on eating her cupcake with a spoon. Can't argue with that, I guess.



We ran out of time to open presents there, so we took them home. Adding those presents to the ones we got her and the ones family sent, she made out pretty well, I'd say. In fact, we only opened a few that night because soon it was bedtime.


Here's me playing with the puzzles we got her. Now you can't tell me that little rack for storing puzzles isn't handy, right?

I did want to make sure she got something for her first birthday from Mama and Daddy that was special. So, we decided to get her a charm bracelet. We'll give her a new charm for it every year for her birthday, and when she's old enough that she won't try to eat it, we'll let her take care of it. Until then, we will.

This year's charm is a four-leaf clover charm because her Grandma Louise gave her a real four-leaf clover for her birthday.

Everything went really well; I couldn't have asked for a better first birthday party. We are so lucky that we have great friends like Tere and Ivan who not only helped by letting us use their community's location, but they helped get the food ready, put the decorations up, and all that stuff. And everybody helped clean up and reload the cars, so that part was a breeze.

So, why bother with all of this for a one-year-old? Lots of reasons. One, she had a blast. Two, people who love her had a reason to get together and see her. Three, she may not remember it, but she will have the pictures and the video to see it. And last, because we had fun, and we'll remember it.