Babies Don't Keep: Clara is 1!

Clara turned one on July 22. Her birthday was a tough day. My cousin's funeral was July 23, so after taking some pictures with Beth on Thursday night (pictures by Beth to come) and a little bit of celebrating on Friday, we left her with her Granny Mac to travel to Knoxville, TN. Here's a picture of her opening her presents with Ms. Alex on her actual birthday:

And her final sticker picture:

After much deliberation and a good talk with Abby, we decided to move the party to this past Saturday. I am so glad we did! I have to admit, though, before John's sudden death I was very much into the party planning. I had an excel spreadsheet with menu ideas, decorating ideas and instructions, details for her outfit, the guest list, etc. I stored all of the materials together and I had planned on spending the weekend of 7/15 getting ready. After John's passing, it seemed a little ridiculous. I took a few pictures of the details so that I could remember, but I tried to focus the pictures on what matters most--the family and friends that came out to celebrate our little girl. Clara had 5 friends come for her party, which is a ton for a 1 year old. She also had her friends' parents and her grandparents, she is a very blessed little girl to have so many people that love her. So with that said, here are the pics!

Friends with Granny Mac in the playroom

The guest of honor with her favorite toy, the piggy bank. The mayhem is just beginning.

Balloons!

Clara and her Nana playing with balloons--they were a big hit!

More of that.

Dads in the kitchen.

My dad holding tiny Lizzie with Adelaide in the foreground.

Back to the balloons:

Abby with tiny Lizzie.

And here's what you wanted to see, the cupcake.

She was very inquisitive. She tasted it.

And then went to town!

Her friends enjoyed the cupcakes too:

Twins.

Annalise.

Clara opening presents.

Clara after she had enough.

Family picture.

And just because I want to remember, here are a few pics of the details. The party had a strawberry theme. The invitations matched the cupcake pics, which matched the Happy Birthday banner, which matched the tags on the party favors. You can see the banner in the picture of Abby and Lizzie. The runner in the picture above matched the color scheme and the paper goods were all pink, green and red. I even tied the silverware up with strawberry ribbons. Clara wore a strawberry tutu and a strawberry onesie that said her name and had a big 1 in the middle of the strawberry.

Here is a picture of the goody table:

The white bowl is filled with strawberry shaped cookies with red royal icing. The goody bags had a strawberry bow from Blue Monster Bows along with a pair of strawberry shaped sunglasses and one of the cookies. Dys got a little people car. I made the strawberry cupcakes myself using Janet's old fashioned strawberry-pecan cake recipe and the same frosting I used on Quincy's cake. They were delicious.

I made adult and kid versions of strawberry lemonade and put them in big beverage dispensers, I didn't even take a picture of that, because who really cares about a picture of my lemonade. But it was cute, take my word for it.

I took the 12 pictures from each of Clara's 12 monthly shots and put them in little buckets filled with play sand.