One Year & Party Time!

Oh my goodness, it's here and I'm in shock.

My baby girl is a year old today.

Time has never gone by so fast and it just really needs to slow down.

I've been reminiscing all weekend about this time a year ago

and how sweet, exciting, scary, exhausting, and heavenly it was.

Chris is literally the sweetest husband in the world and indulged me

by reading Scarlett's birth story blog out loud to me as I teared up

remembering all the details and emotions of that day.

 

It's been the hardest and most amazing year of my life.

Being a mom has taught me selflessness, patience, and unconditional love.

Chris and I feel so blessed to raise our little angel.

 

It makes me so sad, but Scarlett doesn't even seem like a baby anymore!

She's rapidly becoming a kid , and that is so weird to me.

Her biggest new developments are:

-she's walking/practically running alllll over the place.

It was literally in a span of two days when she went from taking several

wobbly steps to completely ditching crawling and taking laps around the house

like a pro.  It's amazing.

-She's starting to get some stranger danger.  Not a ton, she's still

a super happy baby that loves attention from others, but occasionally cries

now when other people try to hold her and just wants mommy and daddy.

(not gonna lie, it makes me kinda happy)

-She eats some big people food.  I ordered her first kid's meal at a restaurant and she

was in heaven with her mac and cheese.  I know, big news :)

 

 

Soooo I may or may not have gone a bit overboard with her party on Saturday.

But what the heck, she'll only turn one once, right?

And it wasn't like I spent a ton of money, in fact I hardly spent anything!!

It was mainly just a time factor, but I had the time, so why not?

I doubt I'll make a tradition of big parties like this, but it was fun to do once :)

 

It was Alice in Wonderland themed, emphasis on the "ONE-derland"

Which mainly just meant it was a tea party.

(Chris apparently has a hidden talent for invitation making and made this from scratch!)

(Black bloxes aren't for decoration, just to black out personal information)

 

 

My cute little "Alice" :)

I looked online for a tutu, which ran for about 60 bucks.  No thank you.

Made this myself for five dollars :)

Take that, Etsy!

 

Scrapbook paper was my best friend for decorating,

including this "Happy Birthday Scarlett" banner.

 

 

Coloring station for the little ones.

Paint the roses "Scarlett"

 

"This Way, That Way, Wrong Way, Right Way"

 

Don't think I'm a crazy person, cause this isn't a real cake haha.

My mom decorates fake cakes for weddings,

so with her expert guidance I decided to take a shot at decorating

one myself, just solely for table cuteness.

I was pretty proud of how it turned out!

 

"Eat Me!"

 

We found these adorable cupcake holders shaped like

teacups and I was instantly obsessed.

 

Decorated her real smash cake myself!

(Also with help from my sweet mama)

 

"Drink Me!"

 

I love little details to make things extra special.

A simple piece of scrapbook paper can turn an ordinary water

bottle into a cute table item to go with any theme.

 

We also had an Italian soda bar.

One of my best friends got married a couple of months

ago and did this at her luncheon and I thought it was the greatest

idea ever.  I borrowed her cute signs to recreate the awesomeness.

 

 

I kinda love my little Alice and my Mad Hatter.

(Chris was such a champ with this whole party.

Not only did he agree to wear the hat, he also stayed up

with me until 3 am the night before making dip, cooking, and chopping

vegetables.  I think he's really glad this party is over haha)

 

 

They look so much alike!

 

It wouldn't have been a party without special people to share the day with us.

Thank you to everyone who came and also to my parents

and my in-laws (who came all the way from California) for all of their help!

Especially to my sweet mother-in-law for taking all of these fantastic pictures!

She says she doesn't know what she's doing, but they turned out great

and captured some priceless moments for us.

 

Scarlett loves my friend Stacy.

She couldn't keep her eyes off of her.

 

It was the busiest day of the year at the family fun center,

but my sweet daddy snuck away to be there for Scarlett's special day :)

 

Opening gifts, what a spoiled girl!

Chris and I only bought her one gift and then just wrapped

up some things she already had so she would have more things to open,

but family and friends were very generous to her!

 

Her one and only gift from us, a slide!

She's a climber, and she was instantly obsessed.

Best money I've ever spent.

 

Cake time!  Scarlett was exhausted and yawned through all the pictures :)

 

She wasn't quite sure what to think about this gigantic thing at first.

 

Yummy!

Too bad she had some kind of allergic reaction to the cake

and ended up getting a rash all over her body, poor thing :(

Thankfully it cleared up on its own after a half hour.

 

 

 

Such a mess, but so worth it.

 

Squeaky clean!  Love my bath-time snuggles.

 

Happy Birthday to this sweet girl!!

We love you more than anything and are so happy to have you in our lives.

 

** I was planning to have her official one-year-old pictures done today,

but unfortunately yesterday she tripped, bonked her head, and got a huge goose egg

right smack in the middle of her forehead :(  So they're going to be postponed a couple

of days.