Photo Shoot

Later in the day after Mary Hyatt's party we walked to a little bridge next to our house to take her picture with some of her balloons.  Let me just say, taking a picture of a VERY busy 1 year old who is running all over the place can be tricky.  I do think I managed to get some good ones though!

 I just happened to get lucky on this next one.  She never sits still for longer than 10 seconds... EVER...

 Happy, Happy Girl! This is pretty typical of her!

 She kept standing up and grabbing the balloons and running off with them.  She would get so tangled in all the strings, but it didn't stop her...and surprisingly enough, she never tripped.

 Love a ruffle booty! and Love baby legs!

 This picture kind of shows you how busy she is...She is always on the move!

Mary Hyatt's First Birthday- Part Two

* If you are friends with me on facebook, then you have probably seen all of these pictures and this post will be very boring but I still wanted to add them so that I'd have them on here for when I print out a book.

I loved Mary Hyatt's first birthday outfit.  She looked so sweet and so cute! Here she is before everyone got to the party.

Mary Hyatt loves balloons.  We often get one when we go grocery shopping and let her carry it around the store with her.  It entertains her and we are able to get our grocery shopping done, so it's a win, win!

She loved playing with the balloons before the party while we got everything ready.  My mom and dad had come to spend the night with us the night before the party to help me get everything ready.  I was so thankful for their help the morning of the party! I couldn't have done it all without them helping me clean, set up, running around around town to pick up food, and help with watching Mary Hyatt! Thanks mom and dad!

Here is my dad and Mark (brother-in-law) at the party

Mary Hyatt kept imitating Chase sticking his tongue out at her.  haha It was cute.

Of course, our good friends (and practically Mary Hyatt's second mama) came to celebrate!

Our friends the Cupps also came to the party.  They have a 9 month old daughter.  We had gotten together when the girls were much younger, but now it's getting to be much more fun now that they are older and are starting to play together.  Mary Hyatt was excited to see Jane Reable and kept leaning to give her a hug.

We served BBQ, baked beans, potato salad, and chips.  It was pretty yummy!

Mary Hyatt started breaking in to this present before we were even ready to open presents! She was excited!

 While we were waiting on everyone to get their food, the girls found one of my nephews toys that he had brought with him.  We laughed seeing two little girls play with a bunch of wrestlers!  Even when we pulled all of Mary Hyatt's presents out and tried to get her to open them, she kept wondering back towards the wrestlers.

I didn't really get any good pictures of Mary Hyatt opening her presents.  She got lots of fun things and we have definitely been enjoying playing with all of her new toys over the last few weeks!  She actually did a pretty good job pulling the paper off the presents too.

After presents, it was time for cake!

She dug right in!! We didn't have to help her at all! She must have a sweet tooth like her mama and daddy!

Sharing some cake with daddy!

After cake, we put Mary Hyatt in a baby pool to clean her off, and then she got to spend a little more time visiting with family.

I snapped this picture of my sister and my niece and nephew.  Can't believe how big they are getting!

By the end of the party, Mary Hyatt was worn out.  She went right to sleep in her Lovie's arms.

Her first birthday party couldn't have gone any better.  I think she had a great time and we were so thankful to have our family and close friends to help us celebrate!

First Birthday- The details

I kind of starting brainstorming ideas for Mary Hyatt's birthday party when she was like 7 or 8 months old.  I had been toying with several ideas but Ben and I both decided that an ice cream party was the best option.  I had an idea of what I wanted the invitation to look like but just had to find someone that could implement it. I had a few examples online but still had some of my own touches that I wanted on it.  Luckily, my friend Jennifer at Talesofapeanut.blogspot.com offered to create them for me.  They turned out SO cute and exactly how I wanted! I was so excited when they came in the mail.  She did an awesome job! Thanks Jennifer!

Here is the front...

and here is the back (I blacked out all of our personal information.)

Unfortunately Ben had to go out of town the entire week leading up to the party.  We tried to get most things taken care of before he left, but I still spent several late nights creating things for the party or making to do lists. Here is one thing that I made.. a happy birthday banner.  I actually think it turned out pretty cute and I plan to keep it and use it at several future birthday parties.

I made this ribbon wreath (thanks to pinterest!) back before we moved houses. It turned out pretty cute, but our red door clashed with it and kind of took away from it some. Also, if I was going to do this again, I would try to find double sided ribbon so that the solid white backs of the ribbon wouldn't show so much.  I still thought it turned out pretty cute though.

I also made these two signs.  The one on the left has one of Mary Hyatt's montly pictures from each month.  The one on the right was just several of my favorite pictures chronologically.  I had originally planned to make a bann with her monthly pictures, but I just ran out of time.  I think this sufficed good enough though.

Somehow I totally forgot to take pictures of the whole set up of the party.  We had it in our backyard. We served BBQ, baked beans, potato salad and chips.  We also set up an ice cream bar.  Originally, I had hoped to have it all set out on the tables when the guests arrived.  However, since we were doing it outside, and since it was super hot outside, I couldn't really live the ice cream or the toppings out for long.  That meant I just threw it all out on the table when everyone was done with lunch.  It all worked out well.  Here is a small glimpse..

Since we were having such a detailed ice cream bar, Ben and toyed with the idea of even having a cake for the guests at the party.  I finally decided that I just couldn't stand to have a birthday party without some kind of cake so I set out to order one, but didn't want to spend a ton of money on it since it wasn't really the focus point of the party.  I had heard that Publix had pretty good cakes and that they offered a free smash cake with your purchase.  When I explained to the bakery what I wanted they said it wouldn't be a problem  I wanted something simple that we really wouldn't have to cut, and I wanted it in the shape of a number 1.  They made this pull apart cupcake cake.   I thought it was perfect.  I was so impressed with Publix.  And, it was at a great price which was even better!

and this was Mary Hyatt's free smash cake...

which she thoroughly enjoyed!! (More on that in the next post!) 

Lastly, I ordered these cute party favors from Etsy.  They were chocolate lollipops in the shape of a number 1. 

I wish I had taken pictures of the actual set up of the party but I guess with all the hustle and bustle, that was far from my mind.  Her party turned out great though and I think she had a good time! Stay tuned for more...