Birthday Girl

Our baby turned one yesterday! We all had a fantastic day and are so happy that so many friends could join us to celebrate.

Emma woke up about 8:00 and we went upstairs to say happy birthday to her. She had trouble standing up because of her sleep sack...


Josh's Uncle Paul sent her a birthday card that actually sings "Happy Birthday" and it says Emma's name in it. Let's just say it was a hit...


Next we went downstairs to let Emma see her ladybug balloons and have a little breakfast. She absolutely LOVED the balloons. She really didn't want to let them go. Here is a picture of her holding one in each hand.


And then, still keeping one in each hand, drinking some water and eating some toast.


Afterward, she took a nap and me, Josh and his mom got ready for the party to begin. Josh and I made the cake. I wanted to do a cupcake cake in the shape of a ladybug. We ended up making THREE batches of cupcakes before we were pleased with the outcome.

Proof:


Here is the final product. We also made a separate ladybug cupcake just for Emma to have. As an added bonus, we dyed the cake green so that it looked like her ladybug was sitting in the grass...and because she loves all things green!


We even made the icing which turned into it's own circus sideshow. All the colors worked out fine...except black! A word to the wise, if you're going to make icing and then dye it black, just don't. The black dye makes the icing taste terrible! Josh went back to Walmart to just get some already made black icing and we mixed it with some chocolate. Disaster avoided!

Here a picture of the table...we had green beans wrapped in bacon, sausage balls, chicken salad sandwich that were cut into animal shapes, black & red M&Ms, some chips, dip and cheese, and of course some Cheerios for the kids. We also had one of those old fashioned popcorn machines that Josh bought me a few years ago, but I forgot take a picture of the popcorn station...use your imagination.


Here is a shot of Emma celebrating:


And here is one of her and Jaime:


Then it was time for CAKE!!








Finally, it was present time! Her birthday dress was so wet with water and the bottom had icing on it, so we changed her into something more comfortable for this portion of the party.


Here is Emma chasing down our neighbor, Parker, because he wanted to play with all the presents she got.


Then the party was over and Mommy got around to eating something. This is my favorite animal shape (a seahorse) because it's in Emma's "Baby Noah" video that she loves and it reminds me of her.


Even after the party was over, our fun wasn't over yet. Emily came by to bring Emma a present. Here is a shot of them with Emma modeling the dress that Emily made. They're sticking their tongues out at each other.


At the end of the day we all curled up to watch Micky Mouse and then it was off to bed.


If you think you're tired from reading that long post, just imagine living it! :)