Scarlett's Pink Lemonade First Birthday Party

If you have stuck with me throughout my unplanned hiatus the past couple of months, I am very thankful!  I have missed blogging, but just haven't had time for it.  But I'm completely DONE with school, and I graduate a week from tomorrow!  So I hope to be posting more regularly as well as catching up on all of your blogs (again).  Hopefully I don't fall off the face of the blogosphere again!  

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I was so excited about Scarlett's birthday party!  As in, I started pinning things and decided on a theme back in December.  Seriously.  I knew I would have a busy few months due to finishing school, so I thought I better plan ahead!  I decided on a pink lemonade theme, because I thought it was cute and girly, and perfect for the middle of summer.  We decided to have Scarlett's party at our church cafe.  It turned out to be such a nice day!  

I was in the middle of probably the most hectic, intense 8 weeks of my life with my last externship for grad school.  So needless to say, I pretty much needed a vacation after this party in the middle of it all.  But thankfully I had so much help from family!  I would have never been able to put everything together without them, and I am so thankful.  

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So here's my picture-heavy recap of Scarlett's first birthday party:

I made this banner in Microsoft Power Point, and it was so easy!  Who would have ever though Power Point would be the easiest program for crafty things like this, but it really is!  I used it a lot for Scarlett's party.

And here is a picture of the cake table.  The outer wall of our church cafe is pretty much solid windows from floor to ceiling, which makes for a beautiful setting!

My mom got Scarlett's cake for her from a nearby bakery where one of her friends works (The bakery at Hartville Kitchen).  I thought it was perfect!

The smash cake was adorable as well.

And my mom made some really cute cupcakes with lemon candies on top.

 

My sister-in-law Maria created this adorable fruit display.

And of course we had to have a lemonade table.  We decorated it with paper straws, lemons, the chalkboard I made a few years ago, and Lemon Head Boxes.

The centerpieces were flowers from my grandpa's garden that my mom arranged into pretty bouquets in mason jars.

My family members all pitched in to help with the food, and I really didn't even make anything!  Luke and I really do have the best families! On the menu was veggie pizza, chicken salad on croissants, tortilla chips and 2 different types of dip (buffalo chicken and jalapeno popper), and mixed fruit.  

I made food labels in Power Point and taped them to toothpicks that I stuck into lemons.  I found the idea on Pinterest, and thought it was so cute!

On the mantle we put some more lemons, Lemon Heads and tulle in my mother-in-law's apothecary jars, a "Keep Calm and Drink Lemonade" sign that I made, and another lemonade sign (I can't remember where that one came from!)  The pictures in the banner are Scarlett's monthly pictures (notice the colors of her onesies in her monthly pictures match the colors of the party.  One perk of knowing the theme way ahead of time!  ...And of having OCD. Ha!) 

We had to put a room divider up, so my mom and sister decorated it with streamers and lots of pictures of Scarlett mounted on scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby.

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And now, onto some pictures of the party itself!

She was definitely a fan of her frosting!

The birthday girl, looking a little dazed and sleepy!  (unfortunately she did not nap well that morning).  I love her dress.  I just wanted something pink and sweet.  I found it on Zulilly.  I tried to get her to wear a yellow headband, but she is sadly beyond the point of wearing headbands.  She wouldn't keep it in for anything!

 This is her infamous "o" face.  She does it whenever she is excited by anything.  And this is my current favorite picture of her: 

Here it is again:

Me and my girl:

Here she is with Great Grandma Lorie

 And Papa (Luke's dad)

This picture makes me so excited for all these kids to grow up together.  Future bffs!

With Aunt Moey (or Moe Moe as Scarlett calls her)

And with the grandmas.  This was toward the end of the day and she was in desperate need of a nap!  

What a special day!  I still can't believe she's over a year old already!  Time flies when you're having fun!  But as always, I wish it would slow down!

1 year old!

Dear Scarlett,
I am writing this almost a month late, but you are 1 year old now!  We can hardly believe it!

  

You have grown and changed so much in the past month (and year!)  You are less like a baby now, and more like a toddler.  We're so proud of the little girl you're becoming, and we love you so much!

You now have 8 teeth (4 on top, 4 on the bottom).  You are eating more and more real food each day.  However, you are still just a tiny little peanut!  At your 1 year well check you were in the 2nd percentile for weight, weighing in at 15 lbs, 6 ounces.  You are in the 12th percentile for height, at 28 inches.  Everyone continues to comment on how little you are, but you're healthy as can be!

In fact, you really haven't been sick at all in your first year of life.  There were a few times when you had a runny nose or a slight fever, but we think that was mostly due to teething.  I just want to say a big "I told you so!" to the people who were so worried about you being so small, because obviously you're one of the healthiest babies around!

On your birthday, you pulled yourself up in your crib for the first time!  You also had begun saying a few new words, including mama, dada, baby, bubble, no (which sounds like "nie")  pah for pacifier, and bah for blanket.  And since your birthday, your language has started to explode, and you say new words (or your version of words) practically every day.  It's so fun to watch you learn to talk!  

You got so many new toys for your birthday!  You love them all, but your absolute favorites are your little doll houses, your baby doll (which is the same size as you!) your elephant that plays music and spews out balls from its trunk, and your singing giraffe.  You also got a baby Bible, and you love it!  You always turn to the page that shows baby Jesus in the manger, and you love to point to the animals and to baby Jesus. I tell you that we will be celebrating that special day in a few months at Christmastime!  

On top of all of those toys, you are also obsessed with Elmo.  It's funny, because you don't really watch a whole lot of TV, so you don't see him on there very often.  But you have some Elmo toys and books and you love him so much!  We were walking through Target today and you spotted a big Elmo stuffed animal.  You gasped and shouted "Momo!"  (that's how you say Elmo, and it's adorable!)  It makes my day to see you discovering the world and getting excited about little things like that all the time.  

In the month before your birthday you did a lot of fun things!  Mommy was busy with my last externship for school, but we found time for some fun things!  We went to lots of parties for the 4th of July, went shopping on the weekends, and went swimming a few times.  You also spent a lot of time with Nana and Papa, Aunt Di, and Grandma and Grandpa that month since Mommy and Daddy were so busy!  

Here's what you looked like in your 12th month:

We celebrated your birthday with a big, pink-lemonade themed party with a lot of family and friends.  You had so much fun, even though you hadn't napped well that day, and were exhausted!!  You loved digging into your cake, and got frosting all over yourself!

Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you.  Your first year of life has been the best year of our lives!  You bring so much joy, and also teach us things about life each day.  This year went by so quickly, but I can't help but be unbelievably excited about the many, many years to come with you.  We love you more than words can say!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy