Birthday Highlights

Evelyn's 1st birthday went very well! Since you couldn't be here we thought we'd share some of the fun parts.

The day started with breakfast and new jewelry! I made Ev a teeny-tiny pair of silver hoops. As I was making them they looked so small I was sure they wouldn't fit. They did! She doesn't bother them at all and they look adorable.

We spiffed up the kitchen in festive decor: birthday buntings, crepe paper, and balloons. Evelyn looked around with such a confused yet delighted expression on her face

The cake. The cake, the cake, the cake. So I went to Hy-Vee bakery because their cake is THE BEST. We wanted a small cake we could just give to her to destroy. They make 5" cakes for $6...perfect! Well, the guy who took my order acted like every request I made was as impossible as rebuilding the Titanic. I asked for white cake, white frosting, bright pink and green accents, Evelyn's name, and 3 small roses. This is what we got. You'd think by how frantically and seemingly thoroughly he was writing my order that they'd for sure get it right. Well...when they handed me the cake a day later I looked at it and just laughed! I didn't have the time to ask them to re-do it. And we had a giant #1 candle to put where the '3' was. After all, she was just going to destroy it. It was funny how wrong they got it!

Evelyn received some great birthday presents. Mainly clothes, jewelry, books, and money. Heaven knows she doesn't need any more toys. Mike suggested that we just wrap up mousey (her FAVORITE little rat finger puppet). Even though he was right - that there was nothing she'd be happier to see on the other side of the wrapping paper - I insisted we bought our little girl some real birthday presents.

We figured if she could answer the question, "what do you want for your birthday dinner?" she would definitely say PIZZA! She loves pizza. We kicked it up a notch by making homemade-from-scratch pizza.

She loved it!

Time for cake. She was really fussy at this point in the night.

It didn't take her long to get over it! For several minutes she just lightly licked the frosting off her fingers. Then she really dug in.

The night ended early, in the tub, and in tears. Before we knew it stories were read, bottles were drank, and the birthday girl was in bed. Hours before her actual 8:55pm birth time. It was a bitter-sweet ending to a big day. Our baby isn't a baby anymore.
But it was a very happy birthday indeed!

Our friend - who is a photographer - took some amazing portraits of her on her birthday. They will debut on here early next week. I can't wait to show you!