Happy 1st Birthday, Kara! (part two)

We celebrated Kara's 1st birthday on her actual birthday! Sunday, June 14th. It couldn't have been a more perfect day. The weather was gorgeous (after a week of nothing but rain) and our home was filled with our closest family and friends, all here to celebrate Kara's special day!

It's hard to believe that an entire year has passed by already. It truly feels like it was just yesterday that we bundled Kara up in her car seat and brought her home from the hospital. Now she is a walking, teething, babbling petite toddler!

Before I get to all the pictures and descriptions of Kara's big day, I thought I would give a quick update on her growth. We had Kara's one year wellness visit the Friday following her party, June 19th. We were extremely happy to find out that she has grown a lot since her last visit three months ago!!

Stats for 12 months:

Length: 28 inches (40%) - grew 2 inches!

Weight: 17.1 lbs (still 3%) - gained over 3 lbs!

She is still a peanut but has remained on her "curve" and she doesn't have the doctors worried. They once again gave her a clean bill of health! We find it funny that Kara has always done the complete opposite of what other children normally do. She is just starting to experience growth spurts now while other toddlers her age are starting to slow down. We've noticed her appetite has increased immensely over the past few months and her sleep patterns as well. She takes 2 naps a day and has been sleeping through the night for months now...sometimes over 12 hours straight! Yes, we know just how lucky we are...for now! :)

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Ok, now for your viewing pleasure. May I present to you- the birthday cake!

Let it be known that we did not make this cake. We ordered it from our favorite cake lady at Unique Desserts. BUT, we think an intern created this one because it is WAY too busy to be a Ann Louise creation!! It was cute though and of course oh so YUMMY.

As you can somewhat tell by looking at the cake, we decided to do a Flower Theme for Kara's big day! It wasn't hard to come up with this theme because it just screams summer and girly!

Everyone's favorite table at birthday parties! The DESSERT table!

This would be our pathetic attempt at Sunflower Cupcakes. We got this cute idea from the Hello, Cupcake! book. They have some amazing cupcake ideas! Click HERE to view their blog. I think they turned out cute but wish it hadn't taken us all night to create them! We mixed up four different icings trying to get the right texture. Lesson learned: practice at least once before attempting something new the night before the party!! (just for the record, I begged Chris to practice and he insisted that it wouldn't be hard at all...HA!) I think the adorable ladybugs came out great and best of all, they weren't that hard to make.

Our flower favors! (thanks again Jess for helping me create these!)

I originally wanted to have the children create their own birthday hats inside but they were having so much fun outside, we decided to just bring the craft items out to them. As you can see, this fun and creative project was enjoyed by children and adults alike!

Ryan working hard on his birthday hat!

Kara will have a ton of little girlfriends to play with as she grows up. Especially little Ava (who is only 3 weeks older) and her sister, Evelyn! Ava and Evelyn also have two more sisters (not pictured), Kianah and Ceceila...yes, 4 girls! Candi and Khalil have their hands full and we don't know how they survive with that many girls, we think ONE little girl is enough...for now anyway!

We decided that a summer birthday party wouldn't be complete without WATER FUN, so we blew up the kiddie pools and filled them up! It didn't take long for the little ones to find their way into the pools and boy did they have fun once they did! Alyssa (in pink) didn't even need a suit...she walked right up and climbed in, shoes and all! Watching all the children enjoy the water play was really neat and we were so glad the weather was nice enough for them to enjoy the pools!

Grandma High brought a slip and slide for the older children to use...it immediately became a huge hit...and a nice swampy yard soon followed!

Here my niece, Madison demonstrates for us the perfect technique for sliding! I believe shortly after this picture was taken, someone hit the "bump" too hard and broke it. So sadly, this slip and slide lived a short life...

This is pretty much what our son did ALL day! Run Ryan Run! At one point he thought taking his pants off and streaking in front of all our guests would be a good idea. No we did not get a picture of that, in case you were wondering. His reason when we asked him why: well the boy on the slip-n-slide box was NAKED! (I guess when you have your shirt off, you are considered naked in the eyes of a three year old!).

Mommy's good friend Jen posing with Ryan's good friend (and Jen's daughter) Lily!

Oh Ella, how we love thee and your matching swimsuit and hat! Thanks again for giving Kara her very own cute matching suit & hat too! We love it!!

Eleanor and her cutie patootie granddaughter, Sabina! (love her name!)

Kara has had stranger anxiety for hmmm... all her life! No lie, she wouldn't even let her grandparents hold her until just recently. So we were a little surprised when she let Tina (mommy's old HS buddy) hold her. Especially since it was Tina's first time meeting Kara! I guess we now know who to call when we need a babysitter.

Caleb and Jaylin taking a break from all the water fun to enjoy some yummy bar-b-que food. I love this picture not only because they look so cute sharing a chair, but because I keep thinking this is what our two little ones will look like in 2 years!

Then is was time to sing to the birthday girl!
She wasn't sure about the hat at first, but kept it on while we sang to her.

Kara grabbed the cake as soon as I put it in front of her and then licked her fingers! Ryan was the complete opposite on his first birthday, we had to stick his hand in the cake!

Happy Birthday dear Kara....

We gave her a cupcake to try and she really LOVED it!

May I have some more? (she devoured it within minutes!)

Peek-A-Boo!

Birthday Girl walking and clapping!

At the end of the day, we didn't know who was more tired...

...the sleepy birthday girl or her exhausted mama?

Happy 1st Birthday, Kara!

Mommy, Daddy and Ryan love you very much!