It’s really funny, on Elijah’s first birthday we invited everyone to a big party, on Ava’s first birthday we pretty much did just immediate family for a small dinner party, and for Lily’s first birthday we decided to get a room at a resort and celebrate with just our kids…All of these, though different in size, were equally fun! With Lily’s 2nd birthday fast approaching I wanted to recall her 1st birthday.
The night before “the big day” I laid the soon-to-be birthday girl down to bed a little early and the kids and I got started with preparations to celebrate “our baby”…first on the list: Bake Cupcakes!
While we waited for the cupcakes to bake I gave each of the kids 5 paper hearts to write down 5 things they loved about their baby sister (Ava drew pictures and then told me what they were) Both the kids took their time and were very thoughtful. (It also helped that I let them use the "special paint pens")
Now it’s time to decorate those cupcakes! I bought some sour straws to make L's on the tops of the cupcakes… (can you tell which one is Elijah’s?)
After that it was time to wrap our presents! Elijah and Ava got to choose a present at the store ($10 limit) for Lily.
Ava even made a little tag to embellish her gift (I don’t know where she gets it from!)
They both loved watching me curl the ribbon with my scissors…
“The Big Day” is finally here!
We booked a room at The Pointe and we all loved spending lots of time in the pool. Elijah went up and down the slide as many times as we would let him and Ava explored the shallow end and waterfall with her goggles on…Lily’s feet were feeling some of the effects of the water!
So she decided to snuggle with her Uncle Charlie for a little bit…SEE we did have a guest outside our family of 5 there!
No matter how small our party was I was still going to jazz the hotel room up a bit, Here are all our hearts for Lily.
And drink ware for my little party animals…
The little touches made it feel like a real party!
Finally it’s time to open presents…
Ava decided to get Lily one of those spout protector-things for the tub, because Lily is always trying to put her mouth on it and “That’s not safe!”
Elijah got her a talking toy remote, because she is always stealing the real remote!
Mommy & Daddy got her an Ariel ride-on! (that I think she’s ridden on about 5 times in the last year)
After all the gift-opening excitement the girls were ready to play in the tub.
and Elijah was ready to play office.
Lily was all fresh and ready for bed, I love her little vampirish grin and the way she scrunches her nose a little when she smiles...she still does it sometimes!
Lily went to sleep and us “more mature” people got to enjoy games and snacks, Elijah was terrified of this game where the dad POPS up out of bed, it was pretty hilarious to watch him squirm when Avery punched the clock.
Whenever I would get caught without a game piece that I needed Ava would offer to give me hers…my little sweetie!
The next morning was Lily’s birthday so it was time to sing happy birthday to our 1-year-old and have some cupcakes!
At first she didn’t understand to concept of eating this thing…
But before too long she was diving-in, and looking fabulous in the birthday hat I made her!
Elijah and Ava thought the balcony was WAAAAY cool and wanted to stay out there forever but we were ready to hit the pool again before we had to leave.
And so we spent the morning at the pool...
Elijah was running around pretending to be a crawdad.
Ava was riding around on her daddy’s back (notice the crawdad in the background)
And I was staying cool in the shade with Lily while she had a snack.
Had to get some pictures of that chunky little body!
It was a great birthday and we hope to make it a tradition and hit a different resort every year.
Lily, Your first year of life was truly a testimony of God’s grace toward our family. Thinking back on me and daddy’s conversation of “Should we have another baby?” and now seeing the AMAZING blessing that you have been to us. You bring such laughter and joy to our home, you make us want to have more and more babies…but we gotta stop somewhere! I don’t ever want to forget the feeling of kissing your fuzzy head- I love you my darling daughter!
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