Memorial Day Weekend

 This past Memorial Day Weekend was much enjoyed with family and friends.  We really enjoyed relaxing at home, lots of (much needed) naps and time with our families.  Here is our weekend in pictures...

Kinsley enjoying a ride in the car

 My beautiful niece

 Love him.

 Callie's buddy, Daphne, enjoying the weather

 Don't even think about messing with these girls' vanilla wafers... They'll cut you.

 

Oh.... And I decided a hair cut was long overdue!  Back to short and LOVING it.

Spent an afternoon at my cousin's birthday party at a fire station.  So cool!

I had way too much fun with new swimsuits and playing with Callie's headbands... I'll miss my long locks but the only time I actually liked my hair was when it was curled and that was only once a week, so short it is!  Welcome Summer.. I am ready for you.  6 days left of school! 

Callie turns ONE!

Callie  Bug's birthday has come and gone, my angel is now officially a year old.  I wanted to write down a few things, including all about her big party, before the details slipped my memory!

Her birthday party was Saturday, May 11, 2013.  That morning, around 3:30 am, Josh woke up with a righteous stomach ache.  At 6:00 I couldn't sleep any longer.  There was too much on my to do list and not enough time "to do" it in.  When I got up I realized that Josh still wasn't feeling well.  I told him to stay in bed while I got some things done and went into full on mommy mode. 

Luckily my two incredible friends had planned on coming in early to get some extra Callie time and help set up for the party.  Looking back, I wouldn't have been able to pull it all together if it hadn't been for them.  I finished prepping the decorations and laid out all of the stuff for food and then quickly scurried off to take a shower.  Lucky for me, Callie is a great napper and was busy snoozing away in her swing while I got everything done.  I realized after my shower that Josh was going to be completely out of commission.  The poor guy couldn't even move from the bed to the bathroom to throw up and was getting no relief from said throwing up.  I've never seen him like this, he was literally green in the face.  At this point I called for backup... my lovely momma.  She was able to leave a little early and run by the store for some last minute items, and once again, saved the day. 

The rest of the morning is a complete blur. I think I had two panic attacks realizing that there was a lot that wasn't going to be finished before guests arrived, but my lovely friends, Jami and Angie, reassured me and reminded me that no one would know, and this was all about Callie anyway!  I seriously count my lucky stars for the incredible friendships God has blessed me with.  Looking back, the party was a great success.  Josh was able to muster the strength to come out for about 30 minutes before he had to retreat back into hiding, it was so hard to see the pain in his eyes knowing he was missing his daughter's first birthday party... my heart broke for him. 

We had about 30 or so guests over to our house for food (caprese burger bites, grilled cheese, pigs in a blanket) and dessert (cupcakes, animal cookie truffles, chocolate covered pretzels).  We blew up a kiddie pool and loaded it with balls for a makeshift ball pit which was a HUGE success with all of the kids.  The canopy was thrown up in the back along with some seating and a picnic table.  It turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day, we couldn't have asked for better weather! 


Callie had so much fun watching all of the people talk and play and enjoyed her first taste of Miss D-Berry's punch!  After a while we let her go crazy opening presents, which she actually loved!  She'd open it up, pull out the treasure and then look at me to give her the next one.  Typical woman.  :)  Once presents were opened we made our way outside for the cake smash. 


Now, I had this great moment planned out in my head; I thought we'd put the cake down in front of Callie and she'd go bananas trying to shove the delicious, sugary treat into her mouth... That so didn't happen.  The bad thing about plans is that they usually don't go the way you want them to. She loved everyone standing around her singing happy birthday, but when we let her go to get into her cake she wanted nothing to do with it.  My little princess dipped her pointer finger into the icing and then promptly tried to shake it off.  Little miss doesn't like to get dirty (just like Momma).  We attempted to put the icing in her mouth, which just resulted in a lot of drool and a sour face.... Eventually we gave up and called it quits.  Maybe next year she'll be more into the sweets. 


On her actual birthday we met up with family for dinner and celebrated, just the three of us, at home before bed.  The year completely flew by and I can't imagine life without her in our lives.  She has made our marriage stronger and given me the one thing I've dreamed of since I was a little girl-the chance to be a mommy.  No words will ever be powerful enough to describe my joy, thankfulness, and pride in my daughter. 

 Callie on her actual birthday May 14, 2013

 Right before this picture (below) was taken, Callie looked up and saw her very first bird!  She watched it and then threw her hands up over her head when it flew over her... It was hilarious!!!

 Callie and Mommy at her birthday party

 My beautiful grandmother

 Two of the best friends anyone could have ever asked for

 Loving all of her birthday gifts!  Yes... this was all from her party!!!!

 Callie on her actual birthday (morning)

 Birthday pancakes mommy made!

Callie's Pink & Chalkboard Extravaganza

After months of planning, fervently searching Pinterest for inspiration and hours of prep work, Callie's first birthday party has finally come and gone. I'd love to say that it went off without a hitch, unfortunately, as my luck would have it, I cannot say such.  But more on that later.

I had so much fun over the past year decorating Callie's chalkboard with her monthly stats and tracking her growth each month.  Looking back it is such a wonderful miracle to see how she went from a 5.8 lb teensie tot to an almost 17 lb toddler.

Everyone kept asking what the theme for her birthday was going to be and to be honest, I wasn't aware that there was an expectation for a theme at a one year old's birthday.  I mean, let's get real here... The girl has a great personality and is so very smart, but she doesn't watch TV, isn't into any type of book or cartoon character and is way to young to have picked out any hobbies, so a "theme" was very difficult to generate (unless you can classify hiding toys in boxes a theme).  After a little thought I decided to incorporate two of the things that were most prevalent over the first year of her life; chalkboards and pink.  Yep.  It was that simple.

Here are a few of the decorations from little Miss' birthday party!  For putting this all together by myself (again, more on that later) I am pretty proud, however, some things didn't make it to fruition and that makes me a little sad.  I guess there is always next year!

{Dessert Table}

{Animal Cookie Truffles <-- delish="" p="">

{Glittered wine bottles vases}

 {Tower of Delicious Cupcakes}

 {Animal Cookies - For the Kiddos}

 {Chocolate Dipped Pretzels} 

And yes, I am fully aware that I misspelled pretzel... I am not perfect.

 {Smash Cake}

 {12 Month Stat Chalkboard & Note Station}

 {This was actually a huge success... Can't wait to give them to her someday!}

 {Closeup of "chalkboard"}
**You can now find a tutorial for the chalkboard here**

 {Box for predictions/notes to Callie}

 {The 12 months of Callie... She's so stinkin cute. I can't handle it}

 {And of course, my little Birthday Girl!}

 

{I also created a book with all of her monthly pictures and a little note to hear for each month.  What an incredible keepsake!  It turned out so much better than I could have hoped for}

{For more fun and pictures you can follow me on Instagram nickilynne15}

Stay tuned for more party pictures and details about the big day!!  Thanks for stopping by. :)