Today. August 26th. Our little Katey Kate's first birthday. Every mom says this... but where has the time gone. My baby. Such a big girl now...
Her morning was pretty uneventful - just full of bathtime, playtime, eattime, and then a very short naptime (??). And then daddy got home from work early. So we decided to help her get some practice in on how to open presents before her big party in the evening. She didn't really know what she was doing...
*Notice the present isn't completely wrapped??... Brynn wanted to wrap it all by herself. And I let her. But she accidentally didn't cut the paper out big enough. But she said that it was fine because that way it would be easier for Kate to open since she was just learning... but maybe we would just need to set it on the table so that Kate couldn't see that side until it was time to open it ;) Good thinking Brynn!
And good thing she has such great brothers and sister who had no problem teaching her. And she caught on...
So we opened a few more...
They all asked me ALL day long if it was time for her party yet and when were friends going to be here. But Dylan especially had a hard time holding off his excitement. At one point I saw Kate scramble by me with pink frosting on her nose. Huh?... And then I found Dylan helping himself to the cake. At least he decided to share I guess. And I learned he can get his hands on dumdums and down like 10 of them within seconds. Impressive stuff.
I told PJ a while ago that since it was her first birthday, and since we would just be getting home from vacation, I was going to be low key and just have some friends over for a BBQ or something simple like that (which even that he didn't understand). But I couldn't be able to help myself. And had to pick a theme... because I had to do invites. And then when I had a theme I just couldn't stop myself. So flowers it was...
The invite:
The flower invites were to be opened a petal at a time revealing the details "
One year... and Kate has really
bloomed! So we
picked you... a great
bunch to help us celebrate. So
petal on over... Sat Aug 26th at 5:30pm.
Weed really love to see you there!"
***Brynn is quite the creative little girl. And I'm very proud of how she's developing and trying to express herself. So I decided that Kate's birthday party should be our little project. And we worked on it together. And it was a growing experience - for both of us. I needed to learn how to loosen up and not worry about petals being cut out or traced perfectly; or to let the welcome sign be all hers because as she reminded me "people are more important than things". And she needed to figure out how to try her hardest and find joy in work. And we both needed to learn to give a little and not be so stubborn. Anyway... we both did have fun and I think we did a good job - together.
The decorations:
The cake:
Yes, that is the "cake". I baked the cake in terra cotta pots and used frosting and graham cracker crumbs and then artificial flowers. But I also realized I shouldn't hand Kate a pot for her first bday cake so I made her a different flower cake too.
The take home:
Each kid got a little pail of (dumdum) flowers to take home...
Inside the little pails are chocolate covered raisins for the dirt. They also got to take home their pot after their cake was gone, and a packet of seeds, so they could plant their own flowers - we were going to do it at the party but someone forgot to buy the dirt :/
The food:
OK so obviously those flower balloons were part of the decorations (which by the way PJ didn't think I'd be able to make but I think they turned out quite well). Anyway... sandwiches and salads for dinner. All the bread and cheese and meat were cut out into flowers and look how cute the PB&J's turned out! We also had apple snicker salad, broccoli slaw, cheese balls, pickles, etc. And yes, I made my guests pour their drinks out of watering cans :) I'm so cute and fun, I know.
The invitees:
We just invite a few of Kate's BFF's and their families. Miss Lorelai Morgan and her fam, Miss Lauren Olsen and her mom and grandma, Miss Macie Shumway and her fam, and Mr Max and Miss Macy Hartman and their fam.
The activities:
So we didn't do any formal activities or games. But I wanted to have stuff for the kids to do. So we drew the big flower out of sidewalk chalk on our driveway and then had little butterflies that you had to toss and try and land on the middle of the flower. And I had coloring pages and sticker scenes for them to work on. And then we also had extra dumdum flowers that we placed/hid in the playroom and then they got to go looking for those flowers to pick and add them to their take home pails.
The cake time:
I don't think she knew what to think when everyone was singing to her. And while I tried to help her learn how to blow, apparently me saying blow and then blowing in her face wasn't very effective ;) So Brynn and brothers helped big time and were more than happy to do so. She went to town on her cake. I don't normally let her do that so she calmly enjoyed herself.
The presents:
Good thing we practiced earlier.
She was spoiled by her dear friends.
One day Tyler saw a commercial for this Gyro Bowl and was so excited and said that "Tate" needed it. So we found it at Target and got it for her. He's been so super excited for her to open it. And the minute she did he tore it out of her hands, ripped it out of the packaging, found some cheese balls to put it in and tested it out. They actually did fly out of it but he didn't seem to mind. He was so proud to give it to her.
Playtime with friends:
Me and my baby girl who is now one...
Remember how I mentioned she had a stinking short nap today. She was exhausted and just flopped down in daddy's lap and let him get her ready for bed with no complaints or twists or maneuvers to get away once everyone left. That's how you know it was a great birthday...
... and that's all I ever want for my kids. To make sure they know (most especially on their special day) that they are loved and that they deserve the best of everything and that we are beyond glad they came to be with us. Happy big ONE baby girl!
...and yes, probably only managed to get that one because I had to bribe her with a cracker, and then she had to stop to get a bite real quick. So let's just pretend that this picture (taken later that day) has a 12 month sign in it because I like it more :) ....
Kate of course starting walking this past month. And while she's been able to go up stairs, has been getting better at going down them without falling. About a week or so ago she got teeth numbers 5 and 6 (on the top). Daddy decided that when she turned one the bottles needed to be taken away. But she doesn't love her sippy cups - not the way she loves her bottles (which are like her bottle and her pacifier to her) - so that isn't going real well and I still give them to her at bedtime or whatever. It will be a more gradual process than he wanted but at least we've started trying. She likes to 'play' with other kids and babies but spends most of that time yanking out their pacifiers and trying to put them back in or swatting at them... which looks a lot like hitting so we are working on how to 'play' with others.
Not so much so yesterday morning when she went in for her one year well check...
