Weeks of planning and so much debate over what to serve...at first I was going to make Mickey sandwiches and then it was meat trays until I finally had the good sense just to order sandwich platters (thanks, Faith!). We had way too much food--could have gone with 1/2 a sheet cake instead of a 3/4 and just 2 platters, but in the end, it was a wonderful day. We were blessed with gorgeous weather, lots of help in getting food out and cleaning up and the company of many friends and family members. Here's how Keith described Kate's birthday: "it reminded me of our wedding day...it was perfect, didn't have a chance to talk to anyone, and before you know it, it was over."
It was a beautiful day...and our sweet angel really enjoyed it. And, as you can see, she LOVES cake. She would have eaten the entire cake if we would have let her...she managed to get about 1/3 of it down before we took it away! Despite the chaos around her, she methodically kept on chowing down and didn't seem to be losing any steam. Check out her video here.
You can also see more pictures from her birthday celebration.
Of course, our daughter had three outfit changes for her birthday. She greeted her guests (21 children attended this celebration!) in a party dress and then changed into her Minnie Mouse dress for the cake eating festivities. After bath, she wore her comfy, personalized t-shirt dress. She toddled around, bounced in the bounce house, played in the ball pit and played in the family room...ate a ton of cake, took a bath, had a nap and then opened more presents that she had received on Christmas! Then, she ate some dinner, had another bath (just for routine sake) and went to bed. No meltdowns and if I remember correctly, no crying at all. Perfect. She is truly one of the happiest babies I've ever seen.
Kate's daddy was a trooper for the big day. He helped transform the house into "Mickey's Clubhouse" with streamers and decorations everywhere. Kate was in awe of them when she first saw them, walking and pointing up at the ceiling and at the pictures of Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald. Her Mickey Mouse bounce house/ball pit made its debut among her playgroup friends and was a big hit.
Almost two weeks later, I'm still trying to figure out how we are going to store all of her toys and have yet to put away all of the clothes, but hopefully this weekend will lend some time for organization and spring cleaning. We are in the season of birthdays...our playgroup pals are all celebrating their birthdays over the next month. Thank goodness Kate's birthday was one of the first, so now she has party dresses for each and every one! Check her out at Alyssa's first birthday last weekend. She discovered sand for the first time--what fun--and she didn't even try to eat it!!
While I didn't finish Kate's scrapbook photo album, I was able to edit and print 360 of the photos from her first year (there are 1200 in all...thank goodness for digital storage) and place them in some albums for folks to peruse. Her baby book is mostly complete (just need to confirm some of our grandparent's names in the family tree and fill out the 1st birthday page). We also did a memory calendar for the first year and I also made a cute book last August of Kate's first 6 months for Keith's birthday. Needless to say, Kate's first year is well documented. When I look back at the pictures and my blog, I'm thankful to have these tools to rekindle the memories that are already fading as new, more recent memories take hold. Thank you for allowing me to share these special moments with you. I know that this road of parenting is long, but so far, I'm really enjoying the ride!
