Ain't no Party like a First Birthday Party....

And a First Birthday Party Don't Stop!

(much like this post....be prepared for overload...)

One year of this sweet little face surely called for celebration!

And celebrate we did.

Birthday morning, we set up for a family party. G was on-call that evening, so the morning was our big birthday-day celebration. I just LOVE birthday mornings, and Caris took to her first one with the same wonderment and joy. Seriously, she crawled right to her little set-up and gave such a sweet smile, like 'this is all for ME??!!' She knew right away it was a special morning. Caris' present from Mom and Dad was her own outdoor table and stools...unfortunately only the stools were represented on the morning excitement.

And our first birthday candle! Caris even attempted to blow it our herself.

**picture disclaimer...well, I tried. But not all pics made it in correct format or in correct order. and as per usual, I forgot to take all the pics I wanted. and also per usual, Aunt Alli's pics are the best! so I borrowed Thanks ALLI!!:)

And then to the BIG SHOW! The Birthday Party!! We celebrated year one with a Garden Party for our garden girl.

Our little peony :)

And seriously. Is this not a garden birthday flower dress if there ever was such a thing?

Caris' favorite thing that day was splashing in her new butterfly pool! (thanks Aunties Tara&Shelby!)

Family pic at the dessert table.

And Mom and her ONE YEAR OLD!!

Sisters. Aunties. We are lucky to have such great ones! Seriously. They all spoil C so much and she has so much fun with all her Aunts!!

Grandparents. LOVE these pictures. Caris seriously is a lucky lady in this department. We have such generous, loving, and fun grandparents!

The Cake.

*I started shopping for cakes. And was shocked at the cost. And so with my Mom and Garrett's convincing, I decided we could undertake the task ourself. Plus I thought it would be fun and a great memory to have of the first birthday. And so we set out on the task.

Our finished products!

Big cake and mini C cake. It really was a fun project. But I COULD NOT have pulled it off with my Mom (color guru and icing extrodinaire) and sisters (creative vision and bug maker supremes). HUGE THANK YOU to them!!!

Even the boys got in on making bugs....theirs are on the back

-except Bobby's bee which took top honors!

Which got a little crazy at 1:00a.m...

Caris and her cake.

She knocked the candle off and then wasn't sure what to do with the cake...

Also you can see in this pic the super cute birthday banner that Grammy Jane made! Turned out so cute! We will love using this over the years :)

This was the point where Caris had a mini-meltdown.

Poor girl had been sick the week/end before and our napping schedule was a little off. But she pulled through. However, she refused to sit in her highchair.

So we ate cake on the floor.

Still good, right C!

Some 'after' pics of our party decor.

Which includes a good view of our finally FINISHED backyard project!! Which really deserves a post of it's own, but who am I kidding these days, so now is as good of chance as any! Garrett has logged some serious man hours redoing our back porch over the past year. With the gracious help and hard labor from our dads, brother, and brother-in-law, he was able to pretty much finish it off in time for the garden party! (good incentive :)

G extended our back porch and put in flagstone (above pic) and made an additional patio on the far back side under our oak tree (below).

The new patio is one of our favorite places right now. Perfect little place to enjoy our garden. We put the kid's activites here, put in all my craziness and non-existant knowledge of how to operate a first birthday, we didn't really get too many flower pots planted and sent home with the kids...

Loved the lanterns!! So fun.The brick paths were the other major yard improvement project. Garrett found a great deal and hauled 3,000 bricks over from an old house. Then spent MANY hours (with his dad and brother) cleaning the bricks, removing mortar, and getting them ready.

(did I mention he decided to do this when Caris was 2 weeks old? In the middle of finals?? CRAZY)

I LOVED how the brick paths turned out!! The really set the yard off I think. My favorite part :)

And our Garden Party was the perfect time to break in the yard!

We had a great time celebrating year one. We really wanted the party to be a way to say THANK YOU to all our family and friends who have made this year possible. Seriously, we feel very blessed. From work friends who listen to me vent to sweet mom friends who work around our weird schedules for playdates to new school friends who make the drop-off easier. And family who travels to visit when we aren't able who understand when life gets a little hectic and are willing to drop anything to help as needed; this last point so exemplified in our party as we literally could not have finished the yard or pulled off the party without their help. Love you guys! Thanks for making year one the best of my life!

Happy Happy Birthday to our girl!!