Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Lily’s First Birthday Party (3/6/10)

Today was Lily’s 1st birthday party! It was Winnie the Pooh themed, of course. Seeing as how Paul took 199 pictures and my dad took 67, I will let the photos tell the story of the party. Don’t worry; I narrowed down the post to 85 pictures. That’s still a ton, I know, but less than a third of what I originally had!
Here is our party invite (with our personal information blacked out):

I was glad to have cleaned the house earlier in the week and done most of the decorating yesterday. I really had hardly anything to do before the party. My Mom and Aunt Gloria were a huge help and made most of the food. All I had to do was pick up the cake from Kroger, pick up the sub from Subway, and open the container of chips and dip.
Here is Lily playing before her party in front of her wall decoration. She loved it and kept patting it:

We tried to get Lily to take a long morning nap as we knew that she would miss her afternoon nap due to the party. She woke up a little after my parents arrived to help me finish getting everything ready so we whisked her into the bath and she emerged, dressed and lovely, just as the guests started to arrive.
Lily with the first of our guests, Ashlee, Jim, Gloria, and Jeremy:

The party begins with Jeremy, Gloria, Marion, and Robin:

Continuing on beyond Robin is Lee, Ashlee, Nolan (our cat), Grayson, Ally, Carol, and Jim. Behind Jim is a slideshow DVD I made of photos from Lily's first year:

Lily in her cute birthday dress with Grandma Chris:

Lily playing with Grayson and Ally:

Lily with her sitter, Kirsten, and Kirsten's son, Nate. Lily and Nate love each other very much:

Lily playing with her cousin, Sophia:

Lily and Kirsten:
The lunch pandemonium. We had a huge turkey sub, a veggie sub, potato chips and dip, tortilla chips and queso, fruit salad, veggies and dip, deviled eggs, ham roll-ups, a dessert cheeseball and crackers, chocolate scotcheroos, and, of course, birthday cake and ice cream. The house was packed solid. We nearly had to use a shoehorn to fit them all in! There was hardly any room but I feel blessed to have that many important people in my life to invite. In attendance were the following people:
me, Paul, and the guest of honor, Lily, of course
my Mom and Dad
my Grandma
my Aunt Gloria and Uncle Jim
my Aunt Robin and Uncle Lee
my cousin, Ashlee, and her husband, Jeremy
Lily’s godmother, Carol, and her kids, Grayson and Ally
my good friends from college, Amy and Wynn, with their kids, Austin and Mya
Lily’s babysitter, Kirsten, with her husband, Pat, and kids, Keegan and Nate
our co-worker Lois
another co-worker and old friend of Paul’s, Pat, and his wife, Auriel
and Paul’s sister, Debbie, with her husband, Mike, and kids, Jack and Sophia:
Sophia enjoying the fruit salad:
Lily playing with Austin and Mya:
Lily's birthday cake:
With her Pooh candle:
Jack got a little impatient waiting for cake:
Singing "Happy Birthday" to Lily:
I helped her blow out the candle:
The birthday girl and her mommy. Lily hated the hat so she is making a funny face:
Lily in her matching birthday hat and bib:
Jack enjoying his cake with his lovely red Joker mouth from the punch:
Mya and Grayson eating cake:
Robin and I served cake and ice cream to everyone while Jeremy, Ashlee, and Lee helped distribute it:
Lois petting Amber:

Present time! First Lily got this cute pink Dora chair from her godparents, Carol and Grant:

All of the kids helped tear into Lily's gifts. You can barely see Lily in front of Ally:

What is it!?:

A ride-on toy from Carol, Grant, Grayson, and Ally:

Lily picking out her next gift:

I read the card to everyone:

Lily watching Ally and Mya look at the card:

Keegan, Lily and Ally opening the next gift:

It's a beehive from Grandma Chris and Papi Tim. Lily loves bees:

Every kid wanted a bee to play with:


Lily and Ally looking at a photo album from Grandma Chris and Papi Tim:

Keegan gave Lily a bee while Ally, Nate, and Mya opened her mailbox toy from Paul and I:

Lily with another gift:

Wheel Pals! Lily loves farm animals and loves things with wheels so the combination of the two is a sure winner:

The flower around one of her presents made for an adorable headband:

Some adorable clothes from Aunt Robin and Uncle Lee:

Lily sucked on her pacifiers through the packaging while I opened some adorable dresses from Lois:

Lily playing with her Spin and Learn Top from Paul and I:

Lily loves to play with my cell phone and frequently makes random calls on it so this realistic-looking cell phone from Grandma Chris and Papi Tim is right up her alley:

Mya, Austin, Ally, and Lily playing with the mailbox toy:

Grayson and Amber playing with a box:

Lily loved her ride-on toy:

She can even push it around herself:

Carol and Lily:

Mya and Lily look remarkably similar with their blue eyes and same color hair with matching pink bows. You would think that they are related:

Amy, Mya, Lily, and I:

Lily with her little cake. She was fascinated by the candle:
She got very unhappy when I tried to put a birthday hat on her head:



Lily won the battle. I took the hat off:

Yummy:



My happy birthday girl:


I thought that she was getting ready to smash the cake:

But instead, she delicately brought her hand down to touch the candle:

I removed the candle and tore up the cake for her since she was being too dainty:



Playing with the frosting:
It tastes good:

Lily was fascinated by her frosting-covered fingers:



All done! Time to clean up:

My little nudist kept her dress off for a while. Ally and Grayson were playing a game on the stairs which Lily enjoyed watching. I love how she is standing with her legs crossed like a little lady:

Lily playing with her cake topper:
We got out her Easter duck to play with so she could show Grandma and Papi how she attacks it:



Lily playing with her "gumballs" in the sunbeam:

Lily loved the chair that she got from Carol but didn't quite understand how to sit in it. I guess it is a hard concept to learn to sit in a chair since you can't see what you are doing. Lily kept trying to go forward into it:

We guided her into it a few times but when Lily tried to do it on her own, she missed:

Success! She was so proud:

As soon as she sat, she got right back up to try it again:

Happy Lily in her chair next to Grandma:
We all had a lot of fun and Lily was an angel the whole day. She did fine with the crowds of people and all of the kids surrounding her and was only fussy when I tried to put a birthday hat on her. I thought she might get overwhelmed by everything going on or cranky from missing her afternoon nap but she was great. I think she loved all of the presents and all of the attention she got. Lily actually went to bed late, despite her missed nap. I think she was wired from all the fun!