A First Birthday Party

This past weekend was full of driving, a birthday celebration, and more driving.

Zoë's first birthday party turned out quite well. I was so glad we decided to make it where all our friends who have babies Zoë's age could come. And I was so grateful my parents graciously opened up their home to allow us to plan for having our friends and Zoë's little friends come.

We kept it small. Four familes, not including our own, plus the grandparents. And though I'm not sure what next year will look like, I do know that what we decided for this year was perfect.

We didn't really get into a theme, but we did keep it centralized to Zoë being the Princess (and boy does she have her princess hand waving down to a tee) and "Sweet". Because I am no photog, I forgot to get a pic of just the decorations, which were quite cute, in my opinion. I also didn't get many great pics. Oh and while I'm talking about capturing the moment, I completely forgot to get video of Zoë's with first birthday cake. *gasp*

So bummed.

Anyway, let me show you the little I did capture:

So this picture is post Bradley grabbing Zoë's hat, letting go, and it popping Zoë on the head. Thus the reaction you see on Katie's face (Bradley's mom and one of my good friends).

Zoë sitting and talking with her friend Liam and his parents, also our good friends, Andrea and Evan.

Zoë taking a look at her shoes from Poppa D and Gigi. I need to take a pic of the shoes to show you guys. My dad picked them out himself. And let me tell you, they are ADORABLE! I was kind of shocked he picked them out. Can't wait until they fit her!!

So I realized that this picture somewhat shows the decorations we used for the party. The hanging cupcake and the shiny, twirly thing hanging down from the ceiling. There were assorted decorations of that nature we hung from the ceiling and on the chandelier. And of course, pink balloons :)

Pic of the kiddos post gift opening. Liam, Zoë and Hannah Grace all doing their own thing. Hannah Grace is my friend Lindsey's little girl (we're sitting on the floor chit chatting in this pic). 

She was NOT happy we put her in that booster seat Daddy wouldn't just hand her the cake with lit candle and all. So she made sure we knew it.

"Gotta test this with the hand first. See what it feels like."

"Gee that's sticky...not so sure about this..."

"This seriously just might be too sticky for me."

"Maybe I should give it a try before I completely give up on it."

"Oh. my. goodness! This pink stuff is delish."

You guys, her thumb stayed like this for several minutes. She ate cake if I gave it to her, but otherwise she could have cared less about the cake and was content sucking the icing off her thumb.

That icing is yummy!

My sweet girl was so tired by the time we gave the cake to her she ended up having a melt down at the end. She pulled a huge glop of icing off the cake and Ben attempted to get her to eat it. She was. not. in. for. that. Thus, the last bit of the cake smashing was full of tears and a frantic mommy trying to wipe her sweet pea down so she could hold her baby.

I felt awful that something that could have been only fun ended so rough. However, I don't think she really remembers that. She still looks longingly at my sweets :)

All in all, it was a great first birthday party. I'm so grateful to be surrounded by wonderful friends and love watching our little ones interact with one another as they begin to show more of their personalities. (There is only 3 months between the oldest and youngest of the babies.) 

It makes me sad knowing they will have grown a lot each time we're able to get together with them. It makes me sad that they won't really grow up getting to play together as I had hoped.

But I'm hopeful that we will be able to build other relationships here with babies who are close in age to Zoë. And that hopefully relationships will blossom out of that for her.

And that about raps this post up. Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!