A's 1st Birthday Party

The day after Little A's birthday, we had a party to celebrate with family and friends. The weather wasn't the best, so everyone had to sqeeze in our house. We had over 20 people come to share Little A's big day!

We had Little A's monthly photos on display around the house. It is SO CRAZY for me to see how much she has grown in just one year!

I made this birthday banner, and laminated it so I can take of the "1st" and keep using it for many years.We say that Little A likes elephants, because she ended up with a lot of elephant stuff during her first year, so we had an elephant theme birthday party! The pails on the kitchen table had animal cookies, animal crackers, peanuts and circus peanuts to go with the theme (and a month later, we still have plenty of all four left!).

I also found this cute book, Mukluks for Annabelle, about Annabelle the baby elephant at a zoo in Alaska. We had all of Little A's guests sign the book so she can remember everyone who celebrated 1 year with her.

We had a table set up in the living room with elephant's for the little guests to color and decorate. I made elephant face crayons for all of the little guests to take home too.

We got Little A a smash cake, and cupcakes for everyone else to share from Roseville Bakery, the same place we got the cupcakes for our wedding (more on the cake coming soon).

A's Day

So, now that it's been almost a month since Little A's birthday...

We celebrated Little A's actual birthday as a little family. I snuck out of work a little early so I could be with her right at 10:22am, the exact time she entered the world one year earlier. The rest of the day was pretty low key because Little A wasn't feeling 100% and we wanted to make sure she would be feeling her best for her party the next day.

Little A had a lot of fun opening her presents from Mommy and Daddy, but it took a very long time. Every time she got a piece of the wrapping paper off, no matter how small, she would hand it to Daddy. We got her a set of big, colorful blocks for building castles. For now she mainly likes the balls that came with it... and knocking down anything that other people build.

All day, she was such a sweetheart! Here she is giving Daddy some love.

Because it was her official birthday, we decided to pick up a few mini cupcakes for dessert. She wasn't totally sure what to think of her first sweet treat, but her reaction to the little cupcake was much happier than to her cake the next day!

It was such a special day for our little girl. We have LOVED our first year of being parents, and are looking forward to many, many more!