It's hard to believe that we celebrated my baby turning 1 today. Although her birthday is actually tomorrow, the reality of her growing up just hit me like a ton of bricks. She obviously didn't realize that all the decorations, yummy food and presents were for her, but she had a great time, and did a LOT better than I thought she would.
We decided to have a pretty low-key party and invited family and friends that have been a big part of her life. I got there a little early and with some help from Nora, Melanie and Shelby (Melanie's friend) set up a few decorations of bright colors and butterflies. We scattered a few punched flowers on the table for confetti. I ended up having to hand-cut the letters for her banner when my printer suddenly stopped working (of course!) and I couldn't make the cute one I had seen on the Martha Stewart website. I still liked the way it turned out though. Don't you just love the hanging butterflies on the chandelier? I do!
I stayed up until about 12:30 making treats and cakes for the party. I made chocolate covered brownies and white-chocolate covered marshmallows. I know it sounds so simple, but I thought they looked "sweet" - pun intended! We frosted the cakes when we got to my in-laws today and Adam helped with the larger one - he used starbursts and an elephant cookie cutter for the shapes on the big cake. Great job honey! Joselyn's small cake was pink with sprinkles... topped with the cute elephant candle holder that Kasey got for her. It was PERFECT.
For most of the party, the kids played and the adults conversed. When it came time to open gifts, Joselyn had NO idea what was going on. She just enjoyed looking at the fun toys that were being given to her! She got some wonderful fun presents. Thanks everyone for the thoughtful presents! Adam and I got her a moving/sound making kitten and puppy. She was so preoccupied with everything else we didn't quite get the reaction expected, but I know when we bring them out later she is just going to DIE of happiness! One of the cutest reactions was when we handed her the little baby doll that my parents got for her... she held it close and started patting it on the back! It was the best.
After opening presents, we all watched the video I made for Joselyn's birthday- a tradition I hope to keep up through the years. You can see it here on the blog, or you can go here or here to see it better.
When the video was finished, we finally moved on to the cake. I once heard that the way a one year old tackles their birthday cake is a lot like how they will tackle things in life later on. So it was interesting to watch how she handled it. She immediately knew it was food, but was surprisingly cautious. She stuck her fingers in the frosting, gave a big smile when she realized it was sweet and yummy, then slowly kept on digging fingers into the frosting and licking it off. It took her a while before she realized there was also CAKE underneath all the frosting. When she did, she just grabbed little handfuls and enjoyed every little bite. She ended up getting quite messy but it was so cute and so fun to watch!
Her face was so messy when we finally decided to take the cake away, but we came prepared with all her bath stuff! So we gave her a quick bath, cleaned up the messes made and headed home. Joselyn was so worn out. She played with her birthday balloon for about 1 minute before falling asleep on the way home... with the balloon still in hand. What a cutie.
