Her First...

birthday has come and gone. I have to say it was not the way I imagined celebrating Miss Katie's birthday. To be truthful we had to celebrate the day after... I know, in all truthfulness not a big deal. To be sure she knew nothing and minded not in the least that we didn't celebrate on the actual 1 year anniversary of the day she was born.

See we took a little vacation out to North Carolina to visit with my dear Uncle Dale. The drive was a fairly long one and due to some unexpected traffic that nearly left my Beloved on the edge of a breakdown we arrived home at 8:30 the night of her birthday. Needless to say I had no cake, no presents, nothing with which to celebrate our dear Katie.

Immediately after church the next day I set off to Walmart to get the party fixin's (as you Southerner's say :)). Kiersten went with me to pick out a few small gifts and gather some groceries. One of the gifts was this fridge farm from Leap Frog. We used to have one when Isaiah was little. But as things happen, and boy do they happen when you have little ones, the pieces ended up getting thrown away one by one. It wasn't intentionally. It is just the way things happen when the garbage can is too close to the fridge.

Anyhow, you can see Katie was a bit thrilled at the gift. At the beach house in North Carolina the family had this very toy on their refrigerator and she went to play with it constantly. So we thought...wouldn't that make a lovely gift? She was hysterical to watch when she saw it. See how crazy it made her? (picture above) Who would have thought a 1 year old could flip out over a toy?! :)

As a side note Little Miss Katie is officially a walker now. As happened when we took her sister on a trip just at her first birthday, Katie took off on two feet while on our trip. Sure she had taken a few steps at home...you know 1 or 2 together before falling. But on vacation she was crossing rooms and really making headway. How sweet it is to watch them learn to navigate walking. She still looks like she has had a few too many...but that will change as every day goes by. It makes my Beloved tear up as he can't believe she is already so big and yet so small. Just doesn't seem right somehow.

But, I digress! Back to birthday fun.

This is the cake I made the little missy. It is a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Gotta love Betty Crocker! Of course I decorated it as well...but let's just not go there but rather let's discuss that the cake came out not stuck to any pan and in fabulous shape! I made a carrot cake for Kiersten's 2nd birthday and it didn't not come out well. physically speaking. (Tasted wonderful though.) When I took it to my first family birthday party (we just had moved back to state where my Beloved's family lives) my father-in-law took one look at it and said,"Who made that? Leah?" Leah is my niece and was my 1 1/2 years old at the time. Yeah, definitely not a compliment!!! Oh well, we live and learn right? My proof is the cake you see before you. :) YEAH ME!

With a little help we had the candle blown out and a piece of cake set out for Katie to enjoy.

Eating cake is serious business, don't you know? :)

Nothing beats watching a little one get the joy of tearing into their first piece of unshared birthday cake! What a sweetie.

I had to throw this picture in. What a face! This is usually the face I get when I am feeding her vegetables and she seems to be saying, "That is quite enough. Thank you very much!"

Ah, the first birthday come and gone. How quickly the time goes. My sweet Katie is such a dear girl. Only time will tell how many traits or tricks she will mimic from the older ones. Already she can fake laugh...just like her brother. She can squeal and hold 'conversations' with her sister. And how her face lights up when each of them makes their way downstairs when they wake up and come to see us. What a sweet girl she is. Truly a gem.