Celebrating Little Dude!

We had a birthday party for our Little Dude yesterday. He will be one years old on the 14th! I started collecting ideas and making decorations for the party a couple months ago. I got pretty much all my inspiration online and was able to make most of it which helped keep the cost down. {You might recognize some of the ideas from Jessica's blog at The Mac's. Love her style!}

The invitation we sent out to our friends and family.

I picked the colors aqua & orange, I just love those colors right now! And I went with a pinwheel and pennant theme because those seem so boyish to me. It's been so fun to be able to do both a girl party and now a boy party!

This display greeted our guests in the entry way. Can't wait to share how Little Dude's 1 year pictures turned out... but that will have to wait so this is a preview!

Circle garland: I just used different sized circle cutters to cut the paper and then ran them through the sewing machine. Simple and cute!

This banner hung in the stairwell and displayed a picture of Little Dude, one for each month, to show how much he has changed and grown in the last year. I chose all the pictures to be B&W except for his 12 month picture. This was a favorite of party guests!

We served Italian Beef and BBQ Chicken sandwiches, chips and veggies for lunch. It was a perfect wintery day for hot sandwiches! Yum.

We set up a kid table downstairs with PB&J sandwiches, goldfish and orange juice boxes. We also had a coloring station set up for our little guests!

Orange sodas with aqua striped straws were fun but it ended up being a rainy/snowy day so the hot drinks were a big hit for obvious reasons! 

I used a turquoise bucket we have in Little Dude's room to keep the sodas on ice!

We made an ice cream dirt cake for the guests and a chocolate cake for Little Dude's smash cake.

Our happy birthday boy! He took a nap just before his party and was asleep when guests started arriving. But at least he was well rested and a happy boy for his party. 

Daddy had to get in on the smash cake action and show Little Dude how it's done!

There was a variety of party favors for guests to choose from:

- {Gum balls} "Hope you had a BALL"

- {M&M's} "So SWEET of you to come"

- {Gold fish} "Hope you had a SWIMMINGLY good time"

We had a Time Capsule for Little Dude too. Guests were asked to write a note to him and then we will give it to him to open and read at his 18th birthday! Hubby spray painted the glass jar and used vinyl to make a "C" shaped window.

A few pictures of Little Dude opening gifts:

Playing with Grammy.

His train set was a HUGE hit, especially with big sister!

Thank you to everyone who came and made it a successful and enjoyable party! It just wouldn't have been a party with out you all there.

And a particular HUGE thanks to my mama who came out several days before the party to help me set up! She is also responsible for the delicious and popular ice cream dirt cake! Thank you for ALL of your help, we couldn't have pulled it all off with out you.

Little Lady {2 years old}

Here we are. Your second birthday. I'm not sure how time has just slipped through my fingers, but here we are. You are quite the little lady, complete with a sweet heart and all!

It seems a coincidence that we were at the hospital today, where you were born, as I had to make a quick stop at the OB's office. It only intensified the rush of vivid memories of that sweet, sweet day you made your entrance into the world! For brief moments I found myself longing to be back there, just for the day, to relive the exact hours following your birth. The joy your daddy and I had from the minute we saw you can't be described in words. You are the bundle of pure bliss that changed our world forever!

And to see the precious little girl that you are becoming has only multiplied the bliss many times over! You are a strong, strong willed, confident, independent little person. You are exactly who God created you to be! I admire so much about who you are, a reflection of your Maker, and dream with great anticipation, the path He has before you. It is so exciting!!


I wish you the most wonderful 2nd birthday a little princess could ever have. But you must know, my sweet baby girl, that you are really the gift to us!!

Happy, Happy Birthday, Evalyn!

Happy Birthday, Little Lady!

That's exactly what it was, a happy day. We had a wonderful time with family and friends celebrating our baby girl's first year of life!

I would say that the birthday party was a huge success! We did an open house style so people would feel free to come and go as they could. We loved seeing everyone that was able to make it and we missed all of those who weren't able to.

{The girl LOVES lemons! And I know they aren't good for her teeth, we limit them. But it was her birthday!!}

My mom and I spent the day before baking and getting prepared for the party. I think the decorations, cake and party favors turned out darling! Stud Muffin did a wonderful job helping with the decorations and taking pictures to capture our day.

{The party favors were sugar cookies on a stick! They turned out so cute :D}

Little Lady soaked up the attention like a champ. She truly is a people person and loves to be where the people are, see what they are doing and even just chat and give hugs. It was so cute to watch her make the rounds and tell all of her guests "HI!" with her big cheesy grin, often to be followed by a big hug and snuggle!

{The sign on our front door}

She did great opening and even sharing her gifts with her friend, Baby E! I was really impressed and love to see her generous heart at such a young age. I hope I can help encourage and teach her to be generous with her things, all the blessing that she's been give from God.

{She had just finished playing peek-a-boo with the bag}

Stud Muffin worked on and perfected a video mixed with slideshows to music and home videos of Little Lady's first year. It happens to be an hour long! I think I'll post it and anyone who wants to watch can, if you don't want to that's fine too! But it is adorable and really doesn't feel like an hour as it keeps you entertained.

After gift opening we moved right along to the cake festivities as Little Lady was fading fast at that point.

Nana made her a strawberry cake with pink frosting! I think she really enjoyed it but kept looking at her observers like "Why is everyone looking at me?" She was pretty cute, as always! Then it was time for a quick bath...

Not too long after that Little Lady made a crash landing and went to bed for two hours!! When she woke up we had a BBQ dinner with family before we were back to a near empty house again.

She ended up staying up until 9p before she slept the whole night through til 7a!!! {Yay, sleep for mama too!!}

We had a wonderful day and plan to spend today just resting and enjoying Nana's visit. :D

Here are some more wonderful pictures from the party: