Birthday Party

It's taken me a bit of time to be able to write about Gabby's 1st birthday party. The day was such a blur as we were sleep deprived. Here, however, are some key moments:

#1 - I made cupcakes using cake mix. I was back to work for a couple of weeks so didn't have time to make them from scratch. To personalize them a bit I added some mini semi-sweet chocolate chips. I was pleased with the result.

#2 - Flowers. We had an unintentional flower theme for the party. The cake we ordered had flowers decorating it and I made the cupcakes for the kids into sunflowers. To do: use a v-cut leaf decorating tip to make petals around an Oreo.

#3 - Gabby's gift from us was a blow up swimming pool we filled with 450 plastic balls Nate got from his godparents a couple of years ago. It's been up for an entire week and the kids dive in every day. What a hit!

#4 - My niece Joanna took pictures at the party. She typically does a wonderful job. But sometimes I end up with pictures like this...not really sure what to think.

#5 - Red Rover. Red Rover. Send Nate right over! I completely forgot about the joys of this game. We have some fabulous teenager/young adults in the family that entertained the 10 kiddos under the age of 5 we had at the party.

#6 - Freezing frosted cookies works! I've heard of freezing cookies in advance but haven't tried it myself. It really works! I feel like the shine comes off of the frosting a bit but the taste isn't compromised at all!

#7 - 94-degrees is too hot for babies. Anyone really. We look to cool off in all sorts of ways. Niece Ellie poured ice cold water on Gabby's feet. She LOVED it.

#8 - Big brothers love little sister's birthday presents. Even pink Disney princess cars.

#9 - Gabby doesn't like cake. (Crazy, right? And she's my daughter! Just goes to show not everything is passed down...like love of cake!). We tried to give her some at her party and again on her actual birthday. As you can see, she doesn't like it.