Olivia's First Birthday

Saturday was Olivia's birthday so we had a little party.

 

Here is the birthday girl all dressed up for her party!

 

She loves to chew on the blowouts. She hasn't quite figured out how to blow in them but she thinks it is really funny whenever someone blows them at her.

It was a very small party. My parents, Papa Bill, Brandy, Andrew, and Brilyn all came to help us celebrate! But even though it was small we couldn't leave out the decorations.

 

 I wanted everything to be pink, girly, and lots of cupcakes. We made mini cupcakes and big cupcakes. Her smash cake was even a giant cupcake!

 

We opened presents first. Olivia would rather play with the presents than open them. But Grace LOVES to open presents so she helped.

 

Grace made sure to save the present she got for Olivia for the last. She worked so hard decorating it and I think she did an excellent job! She also picked it out all by herself.

Then it was time for cake!

 

She was so neat and dainty with her cake. She would just get a little icing on her finger and then lick it off.

Happy Birthday, Olivia Joy!!

More pictures and some videos!!!

I just posted some of the pictures from Grace's birthday and studio pictures.

You can either scroll down or click HERE to find that post.

You do not want to miss the cute pictures we got from Amanda's studio

And now for more pictures (and some videos!)...

These are the pictures from Grace's little party at home on her actual birthday. I think she had a very wonderful day!

{she loves her baby}

{she learned how to climb up on the sofa... today she didn't even have the boxes and somehow managed to get up there}

{we had hidden something up there and she really wanted it!}

to see more pictures from her party at home click HERE

{she loved the card that Grandma Phyllis sent! She would open it, close it, open it again and then dance to the music. I pulled out the camera after she had been playing with it for about 5 min. but I was too late to get it on tape but I thought this was pretty cute anyways}

{we got her a baby doll for her birthday. She loves it! She was feeding her baby and then sharing the bottle with herself}

{Here she is with her 3rd birthday cake}

Birthday Pictures

As promised here are some pictures from Grace's birthday. I will have more of her birthday evening (opening presents and playing with new toys) later. Since my Mom has been here I have barely even touched our camera. I just take what she has and copy them to our computer!

First stop of the day was Amanda's house to use her studio so we could get pictures of Grace. We did 1 year, cake smashing, and Christmas pictures. I am going to wait until closer to Christmas to put the Christmas pictures on here and just focus on her birthday for today.

We started off with balloons!!

{she loves to take her bows off!}

{I think she looks so grown up in this one}

{sneaky, sneaky!}

Then we took a few in her Christmas dress then moved on to the cake smashing pictures!!

{hmmm.... what is this?}

{ooooh, yummy!}

After we were finished with pictures (and the icing was cleaned up) we headed to lunch. We stopped by Dustin's office and then walked next door to Chili's. Grace told us she wanted pizza (she said it twice so that is what she got!).

{cheesing with her pizza}

After she finished her pizza and broccoli we asked them to sing happy birthday to her.

And they brought her a special dessert - chocolate shake with whip cream and sprinkles!

{it was very yummy!}

{all gone...}

Then it was time to head back home so she could get rest up for more fun!!

{so tired I think I could fall asleep in the car}

My Mom has put a few albums of Grace on her Myspace page. You can click on the following links to view them:

Cake Smashing Pictures

1 Year Photos

Play Time Pictures

Christmas Pictures

And I have a few cute videos I want to put on here but for some reason I cannot get them to upload right now.

A Present a Day...

After Grace's party on Saturday we decided that we would let her open 1 present a day until her birthday and then she gets to open the rest of them that evening. Her birthday is just the day after tomorrow! We are going to take 1 year & Christmas pictures that morning. Then we are planning on meeting Dustin for lunch at Chili's so they can sing to her. That evening we will let her smash her cake and open all the presents she has left.

Why did we decide to let her open a present everyday? Well, a dozen presents at one time may be a little overwhelming for a one year old.

So far we have been doing this for 3 nights and every single present has been a book! And she has loved every single one of them too!!

And guess what Grace is doing new?? She is walking!! All on her own. She doesn't even think about holding onto things anymore. We have been waiting for her to do this since she took her first steps at 9 months old.

Grace's FIRST Birthday Party!

We had Grace's birthday party yesterday and I think it turned out great! We went to the Okinawa Zoo which is just about a 10 min. drive from our house. We were able to use a covered pavilion and the picnic tables that were there for no charge! We gave a guest list to the people at the gate and they just circled everyone's name as they came in and after the party I just went and paid for everyone's admission. And we were able to take anything we wanted - cake, ice cream, snacks, drinks, party favors, etc. We got there when the zoo opened at 9:30 and it was a perfect day! We sat up all the tables and then it was time for guests to arrive.

{Grace's cute cake! One of the cars collapsed in the night so we took it off}

{snacks - animal cookies, fruit and veggie trays, chex mix, and pb&j (the were supposed to be animal shapes but I thought the bear looked more like a rat so they ended up being triangles)}

{cups, plates, napkins}

{Jungle Juice and the cute animal cups}

When the kids started showing up (a total of 5 girls) we went and played on the animal statues.

{Her cute hairbow only lasted long enough for a few pictures}

Then it was time to ride on the rides! Before everyone got there I bought tickets for the carousel and the train.

{Grace wanted to ride on my lap}

{and then she wanted to stand up when it was time to get off}

{Dustin got to ride the train with her!}

I had a little trouble figuring out how to pay to ride the cars. We stood in line I thought I would just hand the guy working there some Yen for all the kids (and adults) who wanted to ride but we kept watching little Japanese children run out and hop right on. Finally, we figured out that you have to put your coin in the car which starts it!

{Dustin and Grace rode on the tank}

After we did all the rides it was time for cake!

{We sang happy birthday and Grace got to blow out her candle with a little help from Daddy!}

It started to rain and cool off while we were eating so we broke out the jackets. We were glad to be under the tent and several Japanese families were taking shelter with us!

And then it was time for presents!

{Grace got lots of cool new toys!}

After the presents were opened everyone got to walk around and see the animals. The rain had stopped and it was warming up again. We thought they were doing an elephant show at 11:30 (that is what was posted on the sign the last time we were there) but after waiting for a while the show never happened. My guess is that they did it early and everyone just missed it. Oh well, they still got to see the animals!

Overall her first party was a success. I think everyone had a good time!!

For more pictures you can check out the album I put on facebook HERE

Or my Mom's myspace album HERE

{Grace waving bye to her guests}

CHOO CHOO!!!

Since Grace's party is tomorrow we had to make the cake today! We made the cakes yesterday so they would be cool when it came time to frost them. This morning I made 6 batches of buttercream frosting.

{Grace was quite the fan! The icing made her pancakes even more yummy}

It took all morning to decorate the cake but the end result was well worth the time. I got to mix up all the colored frosting and my Mom put it on the cake. I actually did the window on the backside of the cake :-)

And here is the final result:

The tracks are made from black licorice and the wheels are oreos. We used the animals from the Little People Noah's Ark set that my Mom is getting her for Christmas (she got it early since we needed the animals!) It will be hard to top this cake for future birthdays!