Lara's Lady Bug First Birthday Party!

The time had finally arrived for Lara's first birthday party! I'm not sure who was more excited, me or her (ok, let's be honest, this party was way more for me than for her! ha!)

The soup was cooking, the food was all set out, the balloons were floating, the decorations were up, and we were all dressed in our ladybug red attire :-)

Here is a series of pictures of Lara's first taste of sugar. I'm not sure what I expected her to do, but this was beyond my wildest expectations! Enjoy!

"What is this mommy?"

"Daddy... get this off my hands please..."

Everyone watching the birthday girl!

Love it!

"Hmmm... maybe this tastes pretty good"

"No clothes, boots, and a whole cake... life can't get much better!"

Very glad that I decided to take off Lara's dress before the cake adventure began!

I think she liked it a little... what do you think!?

After Lara signed "More, please" once we took the cake away! hahahaha!

Time to hose off the birthday ladybug! She truly painted herself red and black!

Time to open presents! She loved tearing off all of the paper! She is definitely a professional gift opener now!

Getting into it!

Hailey found a comfy spot to get a little attention!

Two cute one year olds checking out Lara's new presents!

Birthday Cake! Yum!

The Hasse's! What a great picture!

Eating some White Bean Chili Soup!

Ladybug Lincoln and Ladybug Scott!

Ladybug Lara... for a couple of seconds anyways!

Yes, I realize these should have probably been at the beginning, but blogger is being difficult, so they'll just have to be at the end!

Lara and Lincoln having a good time!

Ladybug Lydia!

The big boys were such a big help!

My two favorite December girls! It has been so much fun to watch these two grow up together this first year!

In all of the action of the party, I looked up once and couldn't find Lara anywhere... finally I found her in the corner of the room behind the tent playing by herself! ha! I guess she just needed a few moments of peace!

The intact birthday cake! (before destruction!)

What a fabulous party it turned out to be! Thank you to everyone who came and made Lara's day so special! We love you all!

Birthday Presents!

We did Lara's party a little earlier than her birthday this year, since we were heading out of town the day after her birthday. We went ahead and pretended like it was the real day!

When she woke up in the morning we had all of her gifts set out for her! She thought it was SO fun! :-)

Trying to get Lara to show me her "1" - unsuccessful....

Seeing her ladybug for the first time! LOVE this look on her face!

So excited!

Going to show daddy!

Time to try out her new chair! I wasn't sure how well she would do in it yet....

Apparently our little climber had no problem! :-)

Trying to figure out her birthday tent!

"Daddy... how did you get in there?!?!?!"

First time in!

Coming out with two balls and a huge grin!

Awww - this is the life! A new chair, a new ladybug and two balls in my hands :-)

Birthday balloons! (Too bad she has a sad swollen cheek.... :-(

When I went to feed Lara breakfast, I put her in her chair and strapped her in. I turned around to get her food and when I turned back she was falling face first into the tile floor... Apparently her chair wasn't strapped onto the kitchen chair :-( We all three cried for a while and had lots of blood, but when it was all over, she had just bitten the side oif her cheek and had a little bruise and some swelling. But, that didn't stop this girl from being the life of the party just a couple hours later! I guess we did pretty good to not have a catostrophic fall for the whole first year... and now I suppose we can say that we survived the first (of I'm sure many more to come...)

Getting Ready for a Big Party!

For Lara's 1st Birthday party I decided to do a ladybug theme! I wanted to keep it pretty simple and low key, but I had a great time making all of the decorations, so of course it got a little more complicated that I had originally intended... Oh well, it was fun and turned out really cute!

Granna, Granpa, Grammy and Papa came to visit us so that they could be at Lara's Party and so that we could celebrate and early Christmas before we left for our big trip! They were a huge help getting everything ready for the party!

Thanks to you all!!!