Lauren's Birthday Party

What a great party we had this weekend! Lauren was happy and playful, the guests were gracious and helpful, and the weather was awful. But since we were warm and dry inside, I forgave it. I was worried about the snow and sleet making a dent in our guest list, but we had a full crowd, and it was wonderful.

My brother helped me with the designs for decorations after I told him what I had in mind, and then he did the hardest part: he hung them up.

The cakes turned out pretty well, except for those un-frosted little flowers. Ooops. At about 11:30 the night before, I gave up. Those little darlin's were too much trouble for me. I figured some people might like cake without frosting, right?

The flowers for the centerpieces were cut from the invitations, and some of the tiny flowers sprinkled around were left over from Lauren's shirt.

Speaking of the shirt - I never really got a good picture of her wearing it, so I'll just show you the finished product:

You can kind of tell it's a one. Lauren had a good time, I think, in spite of the chaos. She just wanted to walk around most of the time. Grandma Sue was the perfect help for this.

We had sandwiches and veggies for lunch, one of Mia's favorite meals. As far as Mia was concerned, this might as well have been her party. She had a good time with her cousins and friends.

When it came time for Lauren's first birthday cake, she stared at it as if waiting for us to tell her 'no.' She had heard the Happy Birthday song a few times already at this point of the day, but with everyone's voices combined, I think she was a little bit distracted from the cake for a minute.

When it became clear that she could do with the cake as she pleased, she grinned at us shyly (is that a word?) and got down to business.

She made short work of it, and then just made a mess for fun. It's the best part of any meal, really.

I had wondered if Lauren would sit still long enough to open any presents, but she did great. All the kids surrounding us held her attention more than the gifts themselves. Every single one of those kids helped us open presents at one point, all trying to get their own toy to the front of the line for us to open next.

Daddy went out the night before to get her our present. Earlier this week when Mia was picking out a gift for her sister, Lauren saw this pink leopard and went crazy over it. She kept grabbing for it and hugging it, so I told Justin about it in case he agreed we should get it for her. I have trouble getting gifts for the kids without his input. I want them to be from us. Anyway, she loved it at the party, and barely looks at it now!

Our littlest girl is no longer an infant. She's had the party to prove it.