Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Birthday party fun!

I had so much fun working on getting ready for Gabrielle's 1st birthday party. So, here are a few of the pictures that we took. I'm serious when I tell you that we took close to 200 pictures of her "Birthday Extravaganza" last week (Nick was the photographer, so you won't see many pictures of him at the party). So, I've had another fun job this week weeding through them and finding the ones that I thought would be great to put up on this post (our family required lots of pics since they couldn't be here with us).

So, for those of you who don't know yet, we met the Hart Family at the church that we are attending down here in Texas. The husband, Jayson, plays bass and sings with the worship team, and is a choir director at one of the middle schools here in town. His wife, Amanda, also sings with them, and is a teacher as well. Their daughter, Haley, is only one day younger than Gabrielle. AND, they tried to get pregnant with her for a while too. SO many fun things that we have in common with them!
Hope you enjoy our party!

The ladybug invitations that I made.

Thanks for the ideas, Kim--they turned out so cute!!!

The table set with all the goodies.

Pictures of the decorations...



Amanda (Haley's mom) created the labels for the water bottles.

Amanda also decorated these two cute ladybug cakes

topped off with strawberry and chocolate frosting--yummy!


AND, Amanda arranged the fruit bouquet in the pot that I painted.

Delicious "Ladybug Treats" in pink and brown (although the colors look a little off in this picture). Peanut butter filling with a chocolate shell, and a Milk Dudd for the head. Another great idea from Kim Sommer--thanks again--they were a huge hit!

Not too long after we got to the Hart's house, Gabrielle found her diaper bag, and started carrying it around, as if she was ready to leave.

Gabrielle and Haley's party hats that each of us moms created. They turned out sooo cute that hopefully I can use it again for future birthdays, or even just let her play dress-up with it.

I can't believe it, but Gabi left her hat on long enough that we were able to get a pretty good picture.

Haley just hanging out with her hat on before the cake...

Precious picture of friends.

Singing "Happy Birthday" to the two girls and keeping their little fingers away from the candles and out of the frosting (for a couple more minutes). Haley's dad, Jayson, is holding her cake on the opposite side of the picture. I think that it was one of the best sounding birthday songs with all the musicians who were in the room!

Gabrielle slowly trying to figure out how to eat the cake,

or mostly just trying to get all the frosting off.

Finger-lickin' good!

We almost got a smile out of her in this picture. I think she was a little overwhelmed by all the people there that she didn't know.

An up-close picture of her messy hands when she was finished eating.

Family picture time...

So, if I would describe Gabrielle's cake-eating as "dainty", I would probably go the to other end of the spectrum and call Haley's cake-eating as "devoured". She ate the whole thing, and as you can see in the pictures, she wasn't holding much back. Way to go! :)

Get it all in there, girl!

Yeah, all done, Haley!

Look at all the fun gifts!

Maddie is admiring the balloons...her dad, Josh, also plays bass with the worship team, and her mom, Alison, also sings. Wow--so many fun people that we have met down here already.

Gabrielle carrying around the bag from one of her gifts.


A pig flashlight toy--very cute!


Gabrielle at a loss for words with everything going on.

One of her favorite gifts from the party...too bad that it was for Haley.

Guess we'll have to get her one too.

Chasing the ball after it bounced out of her hands.

Haley got this huge bubble machine that all the girls really enjoyed. Gabrielle's in the middle of the crowd trying to "catch" a couple of them too.

Pop!

May be she can try saving them from hitting the floor.

Last picture before we headed home for a nap.

3 comments:

Tanya said...

What great pictures! Looks like you had such a fun day and the cake and invitations are amazing! I can't believe Gabi is one already. They grow up SO fast!

Sommer's said...

The birthday party looks like it turned out great! I am glad you were able to use some of the ideas. I love the birthday hats and the fruit skewers in the flower pot. Very creative--perfect 1st birthday celebration!

Jill said...

What a fun party! You girls did a great job on the decorations and food. Your sweet birthday girl is just precious. She's so pretty! Thanks for sharing the festivities with us all!

And I'm so glad to hear/see that you are meeting lots of new friends down there. God provides! :) Big hugs to you all.