Our Little Lady Bug

For Anna's first birthday, we celebrated our sweet girl with a Lady Bug birthday party :)  Here's the birthday girl in her lady bug dress...there was a lady bug hair bow, too, but the longest it stayed in was about 20 seconds!!

Here is the invitation ~ Ben helped me make these by punching out the black dots and he was SO very proud of himself!



My favorite part was the month-by-month progression of Anna pictures, showing how she grew and changed over her first year.  It's still hanging up because we love looking at all those precious moments :)

Lots of family and friends came to see Miss Anna on her big day.  Grandmama and Grandaddy Morin, Grandpa and Sue Williams, Nana and Uncle Tom from home came, as well as Meme and Pop, and her GREAT Grandfather Dunn and Mrs. Alice came from Gastonia!!

She loved her black and red high chair tutu, but not so much the birthday hat Mama made for her :( 



"Happy Birthday to You!"

Her cake was a ladybug, of course!

Anna was curious, but not too crazy about this cake smashing business...

She even decided to share some with big brother Ben!

We also had cupcakes for our friends, and cute little lady bug pretzels.

Our poor little Lady Bug...enough of this being MESSY business.  "Clean me up now, please!!"

Anna had lots of fun opening gifts (and got lots of "help" from her eager brother Ben!).  She got several baby dolls, a tea set, a baby stroller that she loves pushing around, and dinosaur rider/walker that she imitates and says, "ROAR!"...so cute!!  Outfits, hairbows, books, and stuffed animals, too...fun gifts for little Anna!

Favors for our friends in thanks for coming..."Lady Bug Food" black and red M&Ms.

Happy Girl ~ ~ ~ "I'm One!"

Monkeying Around

For Ben's first birthday, we had a monkey-themed party. Very fitting since he loves bananas and climbing :)

Here's the birthday boy ~ looking sharp for his party!! The Invitation:

The Party Scene:

I had to show those because seriously, between the banner and the invitations, Mama had a CALLOUS on her finger from the scissors! Ahhhh....the things we do for our babies :)

Other party goods included a monkey cake, TONS of bananas, and 2 TONS of pictures of Ben throughout his first year...some would call it a shrine (ha ha!!). Mark made everyone take a banana home as a party favor because we'd never get around to eating them all.

Also out among the photos was Ben's "Official Baby Book"...the one where you record all the firsts, doctor visits, each month's happenings, etc. I worked on it NONSTOP every night for a week and I think one person actually looked at it ~ Tee Hee!! Oh so worth it, though....having a deadline to finish something is a really good motivator and it may still be hanging over my head otherwise!!

So, we visited with family, ate BBQ, and opened presents. Ben had never opened a present before and he got the hang of it very quickly! This is the first or second one we opened, so he's looking a little perplexed...Then it was onto the good stuff....Let's Eat Cake!!! Right around this time, Ben was getting his 8th and 9th teeth - one of which was a first molar. So, "picky eater" was indeed the case for a few weeks. I made him a banana-flavored cake 1. because it fit the monkey theme, of course! and 2. in hopes he'd enjoy the cake since he'd eaten regular white cake a few times before and not been too interested.

In the end, I do think he enjoyed the cake despite the fact that he didn't actually eat that much of it. After all, what boy doesn't enjoy making a mess??!!

Here's the Before, During and After....Squish! A new "trick" he's been doing lately...Whew! I don't know HOW we got that little booger cleaned up for the rest of the party! Fun times with Daddy...

"I'm ONE!!"