Sunday, June 10, 2012

Emmarie's 1st Birthday Party {Fun Stuff}

After we had done all of the traditional birthday party stuff: food, cake, presents... We went outside to play on the WATER SLIDE!  My dad is a go big or go home kind of guy, so when we started looking at waterslide rentals for Emmy's party and Kari's graduation, he decided instead to buy one.   So the beauty that you will see below is available to be rented if you are  in the south Texas area. :)

One  more picture of the birthday girl because how can it be a birthday post without her.

IMG_2298

We got a family picture of the three of us on this milestone day.  We all look happy, and I think that describes how we really felt that day.
IMG_2297

Here is a picture of Emmy and Daddy.
IMG_2288

Lauren and I have been friends since middle school, and now our babies will be able to grow up hanging out as well.
IMG_2282

Emmy was super excited about the water table that Brian and his family got her.  She wanted to open the box and set it up right then!
IMG_2369

Melinda is another one of my life long friends.  She made the trip down from Austin to be with Emmy for her birthday.
IMG_2411

She got a couple of super cute outfits from Ollie, April, and Mike.
IMG_2405

Then it was time to get outside to the slide.  I took a million a lot of pictures, but I will try not to bombard you.  Emmy was fearless, and she even went down the slide a couple of times on her own without Daddy.
IMG_2421

Mal thought the slide was super fun!
IMG_2180

Layla couldn't wait to climb up and go again!
IMG_2182

Some of the "older" people thought it was fun just to watch. :)
IMG_2433

Steve and Dana won the prize for best splash!
IMG_2437

Emmy hugged all over Papa and Granny.
IMG_2448

She modeled the new backpack that Grandma Susan made for her!
IMG_2453

She showed off the activity walker that Henry brought her.
IMG_2472

And she unwrapped the sweet puppy that Raeassia, Trey, and Darryl gave her!
IMG_2486

All in all her birthday was a day full of fun, love, and happiness.  We are so blessed to have so many wonderful people in Emmy's life that wanted to celebrate with her.  I hope that in the coming years, they will all continue to have such a positive impact on her life. 

After the party was over, I started thinking about what her theme for next year's party should be.  Bradley just shook his head and sighed.




































Emmarie's 1st Birthday Party {Cake Smash}

The cake smash was one of my favortie parts of first birthday parties.  Emmy's cakes were especially beautiful (in my unbiased opinon of course).  Raeassia worked so hard on Emmarie's cakes.  She made a three tier cake and two smash cakes: one for the party and one for professional pictures.   Each cake was made up of seven different colored layers of cake, one for each part of the rainbow.  I gave her an idea of what I wanted, but she took the meager ideas I provided and ran with them.  Everything was so much more beautiful than I could have expected.  You will notice below that she even tried to match the smash cake to the invitation.
IMG_2201

Here is Emmy standing by her cake.  It is almost as tall as she is.
IMG_2303

She looks so confused about why she is being allowed to stand on the table.
IMG_2305

I am so amazed that this year passed by so quickly when I look at my sweet little "big" girl.  She was enthralled with the candle.
IMG_2318

At first she wasn't quite sure what to do with the cake.  The outer layers of icing were a little thick, and she had only had cake once before on her actual birthday.
IMG_2323

But it did not take her long to figure out what was "going on" on her plate.
IMG_2331

She was quite happy to make a wonderful mess.  And for once, I was happy to let her do it.
IMG_2337

She was in such a good mood from her sugar high that she was even willing to share her cake with Nana.
IMG_2342

If I had to caption this picture, I would say "Nana, watch this!"
IMG_2344

It is amazing how happy a little bit of refined sugar can make a one-year-old.
IMG_2348

That's probably the biggest she smiled the whole day.
IMG_2349

Her aunts sure do love her a lot!
IMG_2361

We decided to take a mini group pic of the people that take care of her on a daily basis.  I don't know what I would have done without each of them this past year.
IMG_2362

A slightly blurry picture where you can see all of the layers inside the cake.
IMG_2364

Nana was eager to start passing out the cake.
IMG_2370

This is the remnants of the smash cake.  She ripped the top red layer off in all of her Godzilla-like destruction.
IMG_2366

Everyone (especially Dana and Halle) seemed to enjoy  the cake.
IMG_2382


Emmarie's 1st Birthday Party {Say Cheese}


IMG_2250

There were lots of special people that made it to Emmy's 1st Birthday Party.  In the picture above, you can see her birthday outfit.  My cousin Billie made the embroidered shirt for her.

This is a picture of Aunt Kari, GiGi, and Oliver.  He was almost as big as Emmy already.
IMG_2103

Henry and Lauren were there, and he was ready to Par-tay!
IMG_2089

Layly was feeling a little camera shy, but Nicole didn't mind giving us a smile.
IMG_2090

Aunt B tried to juggle two babies.  We laugh and say that these are our twins.
IMG_2125

A quick pic of Mommy and the birthday girl.  She wasn't impressed.
IMG_2128

Ms. Halle was here and took a pic with Brittany.
IMG_2135

Hmmm...someone stole the camera for a moment for some selfies.
IMG_2142

Nana was hard at work in the kitchen.
IMG_2144

Ms. Linda came to hang out with us as well.  Henry was really excited to wear that hat.
IMG_2159

Christopher and Emma enjoyed the hot dogs.
IMG_2195

We headed outside to take a few pictures of the littles.  These are some of the cousins from my mom's side of the family.  I think they are going to be so close!
IMG_2256

These are the cousins from Brad's family.  So far, these are all of the grandkids that Joe has!  They are a cute bunch aren't they?
IMG_2271

Great-uncle Robbie stopped in to see the birthday girl!
IMG_2397

Aunt April had to leave early, but she wanted to get a picture with Emmy!
IMG_2408

There are probably a hundred more pictures that I needed to post, and there were tons of people there that refused to have their picture taken (party poopers), but this was a nice sampling of the group!


Emmarie's 1st Birthday Party {Details}

This party was a labor of love.  Heavy emphasis on the word labor.  From the time she was about 4 months, I knew that she was going to have a Rainbow birthday party.  I saw several rainbow parties on blogs like Chickabug and Hostess With the Mostess, and I thought it was the funnest "non themey" idea for a 1st birthday.  It's not that I am not a fan of Mickey Mouse and Dora the Explorer, but Emmarie wasn't really a fan yet.  And, let's be honest, a lot of those party kits aren't really that cute.

I wanted a fun party with the kind of style and panache that would do both Emmarie and (my new love) Pinterest proud.  So 150 pins later, Emmy's party was born.  We had such a good time.  Rather write it all down in a chunk, I will attempt to recreate the scene through pictures and add words where needed.

We had lots of signs and decorations.

This is a picture that I took of her each of her first twelve months.

banner copy

I also had a wall of her weekly photos.  This was a massive undertaking that took dedication and motivation on my part, but it is so worth it to have a picture of my little girl from every week of her first year.  She changed so quickly, and now I can see those changes frozen forever.

IMG_2119

IMG_2118

IMG_2148

Her cake table was a little wild.


IMG_2130a

I absolutely loved Emmy's cake.  It was amazingly constructed and decorated beautifully.  Raeassia did a fantastic job on it!

IMG_2095

IMG_2199

IMG_2201

There were also a few other decorative items that were Pinterest inspired.


IMG_2106

IMG_2088

IMG_2084

IMG_2093

IMG_2116

IMG_2136

I think this party will probably take me at least three posts to fully write up so stay tuned!