Katie's 1st Birthday

Okay, so the big day has come and gone and it's hard to believe I now have a 2-year old, a 1-year old and am due to have a third baby in just 6 weeks. Yikes! And I thought Troy and Rachel were nuts for having 3 under 3... I should be careful of the things I allow myself to think! ;)

So anyway- it was a really fun day. When Katie went down for her morning nap Mom, Ellie and I went out birthday shopping. We got a bear cake pan for her cake and some balloons that Ellie picked out all by herself. As we were driving to the store to get the balloons I asked Ellie what colors we should get. She said that we should buy pink, because she was wearing a pink shirt that day. I told her that the streamers we bought were purple, so maybe we should get purple? Nope- she wasn't wearing purple. What a funny kid!

Now, in our family we like to do theme parties. I put all the blame on Rachel- she's so incredibly creative and it does end up being a lot of fun to do. Our theme for this party was "Going on a Bear Hunt" just like the book. I had bought her the board book of that story and a stuffed bear and of course I knew she'd be a "bear" (bare) to eat her cake. So that's where all the bear stuff comes in.

After the girls took their afternoon naps Dad took them out on a walk to get them out of the house while Mom and I decorated and got dinner and the cake ready. I convinced Mom to decorate the cake for me (I made the cake and icing... that's all I can claim) and she did an incredible job. I think it turned out absolutely adorable. You see, that's Steve's job- but since he's not here, I had to recruit some other help.

We invited our friends the Smiths over to enjoy the party with us. They are two of Ellie's favorite people here. They brought Katie the sweetest little stuffed lamb that got plenty of snuggles from Katie. Katie did pretty well opening presents. Ellie had the hardest time containing herself. I had to grab half-opened presents from her many times to let Katie finish. But the best thing about this age- Katie didn't care one bit. She thought it was fun to rip the paper and look at all her new books. She's become a book lover the last few weeks, so that was a lot of fun.

And then came the cake. This is supposed to be the time when your little one dives in and smears cake all over creation. No luck. She delicately skimmed the top of the frosting with her fingers and took a few tastes. Then when I gave her a big piece, she scrumpled it in her hands and threw it on the floor. I think the only place she actually smeared frosting was in her hair. Her favorite part of it all was when she found a time when no one was looking, ripped off her diaper and threw it across the room. She was truly proud of herself for that one. In the end, our "bear hunt" was successful. :-D

It was a fun day. Exhausting, but fun. And kids only turn 1 once... so you have to enjoy yourself at least a little. If you didn't get to see the pictures from before, this link will take you there.