1st Birthday Party: Let Her Eat Cake!!!!

As you can probably tell from previous posts I was very excited to celebrate Eva's 1st birthday. I was really happy with the way everything turned out. It was the perfect party and everything went so well. I heard someone say once that you don't really understand the importance of a child's first birthday until you've had a baby. Then you realize that the emotion and joy is so much more than just cake and presents. It's an accomplishment for the whole family! So true.

The guest list. In the party planning process we went back and forth about what to do for a guest list. Of course we wanted to invite every single person we know and love, but when we jotted down a short list it was quickly over 50 people and we realized that was a bit much for us. Instead we decided to just do family since even this was over 20 people. I know that lots of people have huge first birthday parties that are tons of fun, but I was very happy with making it a bit smaller, plus this gave us more time to visit with our family.

Check out that head table - 4 grandparents and 3 great grandparents. What a blessing to have them all there to celebrate! We are thankful for the multiple generations in our family!

We had a great time opening gifts. Our family is too generous! Eva got lots of cute clothes and fun toys. That girl is set.

Showing off her walking skills .... which grandma should she walk to? Both of them! 

 In the backyard for a few family photos. Auntie Erica did a fantastic job snapping these photos!

 And then it was time for.......CAKE!!!!!!!

See her face in the top left photo? That is the huge smile she had on her face when a roomful of people started singing Happy Birthday to her. It was priceless. She was not shy at all and soaked up being the center of attention. I don't know where she got that from :) Her first few bites were little pinches of cake before she finally dug in.

 I think she liked it! Haha, I just realized that the photo above makes it look like she ate that whole smash cake. She didn't - after the initial dig in I quietly removed most of the cake and left a small amount for her to finish off. Eva was so full of sweetness that she even offered to share a bite with me!

 Thank you so much to all of our wonderful family. You were the ones that made Eva's birthday so special. Thank you for taking the time to drive out to our house. Thank you for being excited for us. Thank you for being generous and loving our little girl. We love each of you so much!!!!!