The birthday princess! (before the feathers were removed)
It's been a very busy past few weeks. Between March 31st until April 17th, we had five birthdays in the immediate family and one wedding to attend. Throw in Easter, and boy has it been hectic! Finally, however, I am getting the chance to sit down and post about Piper's big 1st birthday celebration. Well, in all actuality, it wasn't a huge event. We had it over at my brother's house and only immediate family members and her "uncle" David from work were on the guest list. We wanted to keep it small, as it is a taxing event for such a young babe (as well as for the mom), and I know it was the right choice. Plus, due to all the surrounding birthdays, we actually had to have the party on her actual birthday which landed on a Thursday this year. I took the day off work to get everything prepared, all her cousins were busted out of school early, and everyone cut their days short to make sure the party was held at a reasonable time. We began the party at 4 pm, which fit perfectly with Piper's nap and eating schedule. It was a fantastic day, so let me tell you all about it.
Before getting ready in her party dress!
Hugging on Teddy, pre-party.
Adorbs!
Of course, you are all quite aware that I believe in taking lots of pictures of all major life events, and every other mundane life events, too. Well, Piper's birthday was no exception to the rule. I did relinquish the fancy cam for a bit to my niece Larkin during the gift unwrapping since my hands were just slightly busy helping Piper forage through all her goodies, but I took it over again during the cake smashing event!
I want to give a shout out to the wonderful Blue Cake Company here locally. Not only did they make the perfect cake to match Piper's perfect birthday dress, they also offer a free 4" round smash cake, decorated the same as the regular cake, for any baby's first birthday. I didn't know this when I called to discuss my main cake with them, I just knew they had a great reputation for awesome cakes. I was going to add on a 2nd tier to the main cake to take off for Piper to have for her very own, but then they told me about the free smash cake. How awesome is that? And to decorate it to the nines, too? Let's just say I'll most likely be using them for all future birthday cake orders...or any other special event warranting a uniquely designed confection of delicious proportions!
The regular cake, see how it matches her dress perfectly!
The perfectly awesome about-to-be-destroyed "smash" cake!
The day started out as usual, we woke up, had some breakfast, and then the adventures set in. I had the delightful task of running around to the local Part\y City to grab some super awesome giant Mylar balloons and other decorations, then go grab the cake, take it all over to my brother's house to drop off and let my nieces go wild with the actual decorating, and then back home to grab the birthday girl, get her in her adorable polka-dot party dress, and then pack everything up and head to the party. We actually ended up being an hour late since Piper took such a long nap ahead of time and then had to eat her lunch before we arrived. Once we arrived, the fun started.
Gifts from us all packed up and ready to go!
A couple of her big balloons and Papa drinking a celebratory beer :)
Another one of her big balloons!
A view of a few of the other decorations...and a beer, lol!
It was a gorgeous, sunny, mid-70 degree day, everyone who was supposed to be there showed up, and everyone was in great spirits and happy to celebrate Piper's big day. After a little while of just hanging out and having family time, I then had everyone join together in the living room to watch a montage DVD I had put together chronicling Piper's first year from my initial positive pregnancy test through the last week before the party. I am currently re-working the montage in a different program, as I didn't have time to do all I wanted with it, and as soon as it is complete I will of course be posting it on the blog. It really is great and the songs chosen may make the sappy people in life, such as myself, tear up a bit. I let my parents watch it before the party, and my mom went through two tissues, as did I. What can I say? We're a sentimental clan and we don't hide our emotions from one another.
My brother the party host, cousin Larkin, and the birthday princess!
Aunt Jana putting on Piper's party hat!
She looked adorable even walking around on her knees!
Even party girls have to potty sometimes!
And pottying is more fun with a balloon!
Larking playing the flip-the-princess game!
Piper loves this game!
A perfect "10" landing!
After the montage was over, Piper then unwrapped her gifts. My parents and I got her mainly clothes, as she had no Spring/Summer wardrobe. I also got her a great book set, a hula-hoop (for various activities before she can officially learn to hoop, and an adorable Old Woman Who Swallowed the Fly doll which Piper gets the biggest kick out of because all the characters from the rhyme are little stuffed animals and the old woman actually holds them in her belly. Easter morning she even fed the poor hungry lady a PEEP...she's a very caring child. I initially thought she might be frightened of the doll, but she loves it, thank goodness. As for her other gifts, she received one of those 3-step walker things made by V-tech, a V-tech puppy named Violet who can be plugged in via USB to the computer so you can download songs and other such things to it. It can talk to Piper, calling her by her name, and other such fun things that are programmed via the USB/website hook-up. Piper also got some really cure tank top and short sets from her cousins and a lovely pink unicorn, and sting ray lovey from the Cayman Islands which her oldest cousin brought back from her Sweet Sixteen cruise. I know she got some other things, but for the life of me cannot remember what all now. But I guess I don't really need to go over everything now, do I?
I will not caption ALL of the unwrapping presents pics...
The stash!
Getting prepared to dig into the stash!
Picking her next victim!
Every birthday girl eventually has to wear a bow on their head!
Cool tag!
Mama helps!
So does uncle Christian!
She loves this puppy! Thanks "uncle" David!
Big hugs!
Even bigger hugs!
Cousin Anna made her a great card!
Uh oh, something that makes noise!
A unicorn!
She always admires Uncle Christian's guitar!
Yes, even I had to have a beer!
After the unwrapping of gifts, we moved onto the best part of the day, the cake smashing and eating! We moved the festivities outdoors for this event, and thank goodness we did because it got really messy! I've got plenty of pics to prove it, so here goes...but first the Happy Birthday song!
We're practically as good as the Partridge Family!
As you can all very well tell, Piper thoroughly enjoyed her day, especially the cake part. Once we packed up and went home, the sugar rush hit. There is probably nothing funnier than a wee one all jacked up on massive quantities of sugary goodness, well at least we thought she was funny. And as always, I have the video to prove her uber wound-up self post-party, and once again another show of her earning of the moniker "Hyper" Piper.
This is a very short clip, the whole episode lasted well over 10 minutes!
All in all, her first birthday was a hit! I still cannot believe she is already a year old. Sometimes it seems like she has always been with me and I cannot remember life without her. Other times, it seems she was just born yesterday. All I know is that she still makes me happier every single day than I was the day before. As she grows and learns, I do the same right along with her. She is the light of my life and I am truly blessed beyond all measures to have such a delightful, wonderful, rambunctious, pugnacious, silly, happy, brilliant, beautiful little girl in my life. I love you, Piper!
And to end this post, here it is a day over two weeks since she turned a year old. Remarkably, her Mylar balloons are still holding up well and she thoroughly enjoys having them in the house, they are so colorful and fun. As a matter of fact, they are so awesome that she got up from pottying the other night, snuck over to the end table and grabbed two of them, and then began walking through the house half-naked with much pride in her new walking skills and having on no pants! Yes, of course I have a video of it! I actually have two videos of it, aren't you all lucky! ;P
This is the first one I took on my phone...too dang cute!
I'll leave you all with one last shot, of Piper and myself before the party started. Rarely do I get to be in any pictures since I am usually the one taking them. Thank goodness my brother snapped this one, cause I love it!
Me and my angel, I love her to pieces!
Thank you all for dropping in to share in Piper's first birthday memories. She's growing so fast, so I hope this next year passes slowly, cause I know I'm going to miss her babyhood when it's gone.
What can you do to help celebrate Piper's first birthday? Go vote!!! You know the routine, and here are the links to do so!
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