Emily's Birthday Party

This post is 3 months late, but I'm still working on getting back in the saddle, so we're not going to dwell on that...  ;)

In honor of Emily's first birthday, we hosted a super fun pastel rainbow-themed party for our little lady.  We invited all of our extended family members, close friends, and some of Emily's baby buddies too.  :)  It was a great celebration!!!

Here's a glimpse of her invitation, which I purchased on Etsy and printed at a local print shop.

I made great use of Emily's monthly photos for the back!

The party was at a restaurant overlooking the water.  It was a sunny, clear June day so we enjoyed the beautiful views with yummy foods!

My cousin, who is Emily's godmother, made the birthday cake and matching mini cupcakes.  They were as delicious as they were beautiful!

 
To keep the many kids {and adults who are young at heart!} entertained, there was a balloon artist, a magician and a musician.  Sooooo many fun things going on!  The balloon artist was beyond talented, creating jet packs out of latex, and the magician was funny as well as daring, cracking jokes while tossing knives in the air - gulp!  The musician is a woman I met through my local mom's group, and as I expected all the kiddies loved her melodic voice and ukulele!

Emily was gifted with SOOOO many beautiful and special items.  She has some VERY generous friends and family!

We had candy favors for adults {starbursts and kisses} and some fun goody bags for the kids {a mix of mini board books, bath toys, candy, temporary tattoos, coloring books, pencils and silly straws depending on the age} as a token of appreciation for helping Emily celebrate her big day.

The three of us had such a great time...

. . . and Emily was the belle of the ball!!!

We'll always remember her first year -- lots of firsts, lots of memories -- ending with an exciting first birthday spent at the zoo, and an awesome party to celebrate our little girl!


*** All photographs are courtesy of Shep's incredibly talented photographer cousin, Robert at  http://fyimages.com ***

51 Weeks Young!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yikes!!!!!  How is my baby almost one year old already?!?!?!?!

51 weeks young.  Technically, since I'm late in posting this, she's actually 51.5 weeks!  Just a few more days until the big O-N-E.  Eeeeeeep!

She crawls, she walks, she dances, and as of the past week she is a non-stop babbler too!

Emily started her 51st week making “ga-ga” noises all day.  She then moved on to “Dada”  {woohoo!!  milestone photo op!}  and in case there was any doubt in my mind from earlier in the week, she definitely said “oof oof” when we saw a dog -- so that’s also an official word now!

Walking and talking.  My newborn infant has turned into a toddler and I simply don't understand where the time has gone!!!  ;)

We've been blessed with some really nice spring weather, so we've been spending more time outside.  Emily is getting slightly more warmed-up to the grass, even venturing to touch it voluntarily!

The weekend was fun-filled with firsts!  Emily visited Long Island {where I grew up!} for the first time, and attended her first birthday party!  A childhood friend of mine had a baby boy just 3 weeks before I gave birth to Emily, so we went out to meet the adorable little Trevor and help celebrate his birthday!  We also got to see some of my extended family members after the party, and then celebrated our first Mother's Day as a family together the following day at home!

On Monday, I took Emily to a waddler gym class for the first time, where she experienced a ball pit, tunnel crawl, swinging rings, a balance beam, a trampoline, and a bunch of exercises and other activities.  She wasn't very impressed with the ball pit or tunnel crawl, though she did finally go through one little tunnel after a lot of prompting by me.  :)

   

She looooooved the rings -- it probably felt to her like she was a human swing!  The smile on her face was just pure joy.

Emily's appetite for solid foods is improving, and she is getting very good at feeding herself some finger foods!  She used to gag when presented with "chunky" foods, but this week she scarfed down an entire 6 oz jar of chicken with pasta stars PLUS 2 clementines for dinner in one night!  The following night she ate an entire banana following her 4 oz jar of puree!  She's a growing girl, for sure!  Here's a little video of Emily eating some grapes:

The way she moves her little fingers to her mouth, and purses her lips when she chews just cracks me up.  I love watching her feeding skills improve over time -- it's been such a remarkable difference in a relatively short amount of time!

Well, that's about it for Week 51!  We have one B-I-G birthday milestone coming up in just a few days!!!!!!!!!!!!