It's so much fun to be ONE!

We had so much fun last evening, celebrating Lauren's first birthday.  Even now that it has passed, I still can't quite understand where the past 12 months went.  Did we maybe skip a few months in there somewhere?

We enjoyed a nice evening with Grandma and Grandpa last night, with a party complete with balloons, cake and presents.  Joshua was so excited about Lauren's party and talked incessantly all day about eating cake and decorating with our balloons.  It was at his insistence that I ordered balloons, actually.  He said that it's "not possible to have a birthday without balloons".  Who could argue with logic like that?

I had to laugh at Lauren while we were eating dinner last night.  As she ate her noodles and peas, she held on to that purple balloon for dear life.  We haven't tried any whole milk in her cup yet (hoping to do that tonight when I can watch her for any reactions), but she did have some bites of cheese for the first time.  She might be my daughter after all because her little eyes widened when she got a bite.  Like, "Mommy, you've been holding out on me!"

Here's a view of the not-anywhere-near-perfect #1 cake that I made for the birthday girl.  Suffice it to say that I now have enough pink icing left over to ice half of central PA.  But it was cute and safe for Joshua, and that's really all that matters.  I am seriously considering taking a cake decorating class of some kind if I'm going to have cakes to decorate like this for the forseable future.  Once their requests start getting complicated, I'm going to be outmatched in my skills in a hurry!

And here's our little cake smasher in action.  She was pretty reserved.  Like a little lady, she kept the cake on her hands and face only--- none in the hair and really not too much on her clothes.  I distinctly recall taking Joshua directly out of his high chair and plopping him in the tub, but Lauren played with her new toys without needing to be hosed down.  We gave her a few little bites of ice cream too, and she really liked that.  Like Mommy, like daughter!

Party #2 is scheduled with my Mom and Dad, Libby, Zig and Brooke tomorrow at our house.  I'll be baking another cake tonight and hope that it comes out half as well as yesterday's did.  Our little girl is so loved and we thank everyone for their well wishes, cards and thoughts yesterday.