Polka Dot First Birthday Party -

I have mixed emotions on this one – the planning and creative fun behind the party is over, which does make me a bit sad. But the main thing that makes me sad is that all throughout the party she was this happy little girl, toddling all over the place – she’s no longer a little baby, shes independent, sociable and so grown up already!

We celebrated twice — once on her actual birthday at home – her gift from Aaron and I was a chair that she can climb in and play on – she loves to be on furniture and even more loves being able to get on it herself, the chair was too cute and she loves it! She had a cupcake too and made a mess of it of course!

Today we had her big party – I believe we had ~30 people total there, it was a great time though – we had BBQ chicken sandwiches and everyone brought sides for the party. TONS of food – and I ate enough for 3 people! She got tons of toys, and had a lot of fun. I went a little crazy on the decorations, but honestly – it looked fantastic, and I don’t regret even one second of the decoration making!! I do regret the late night cram last night – between that and flight delays for Colin none of us got much sleep at all – Colin and Aaron managed about 45 minutes each…

Sarah (photographer) came to the party today to take pictures — in retrospect I’m SO glad I had her come — I was able to relax and enjoy things without having to worry about snapping pictures constantly. It’ll be nice to actually be IN the pictures for a change too! It is weird to come home from such a big event without a bunch of pictures though. Can’t wait till she gets them all done!!

That said, I did take some pictures from her actual birthday and of the decorations – I’ll post those now, but better get off of here after that! Nana took averie for the night – and I want to try to find our house so I can actually just relax the rest of the time we’re at home — which includes catching up on my friends page… it’s been a while!

Opening Presents in her new chair!