Happy First Birthday (Weekend)!

Well, we survived it. The first year. We had no idea what we were in for--that special secret privilege of first-time parenting. Wow! But, we survived and we have this little golden girl, wearing her birthday crown, to show for it:

Grandma and Grandpa arrived on Thursday afternoon. They successfully babysat Thurs. night while I was at choir. (J was at a conference most of the week.) Thurs. night, we decorated. Actually, mom hung up the streamers (her first time) and did a great job. Our color scheme was purple, pink, and green to go with some "I'm 1" napkins I found this summer. The other theme was "The Itsy bitsy spider." We hung a friendly purple and black spider from the kitchen chandelier and decorated the cupcakes, too:


Here is our little one-year old girl on the actual day!

The morning began with bakery bagels and ended with apple cake and pumpkin pudding.

Lovin' that cake!

Happy Hallowe'en! The pants were part of a set I had made especially for her birthday. The dress/top is below.

Enjoying the ride at the apple farm (one last time this year!)

Eyes only for Mama!

AK and her mama's first hayride!!!

Trick-or-treat chicken! She loved it!

Reading with Grandpa the morning of the birthday party

Here you can see the Itsy Bitsy Spider on her dress! That's one of our neighbor children. :)

Here she is getting a big, wet, birthday kiss from the youngest neighbor boy:

Here she is with one of the balloons that now is never allowed to leave her hand!!

Pushing the big-wheeler (yep, it's an AIRPLANE!)

Very proud!

Hey, look--I'm one!!

What a great weekend! We miss "ann-ma" and "ann-pa" a lot already! AK is also beginning to go downstairs the correct way, asserting herself (a-hem a lot in just this weekend!), clapping and I've also begun trying to teach her to sing. Yep, can't start too early....

Happy Birthday, Baby....I mean, sweet little girl!!!!!!!