ONEderful birthday

We finally had Kate's first birthday party last weekend. Although she had been one for several weeks, she didn't seem to mind the delayed celebration, and it was easier on everyone to wait until the Christmas season had passed. We had a winter One-derland theme for her party, so snowflakes and snowmen covered the decor. We had brunch, because Kate loves breakfast food and she is happy at 10:00 in the morning. It was a winning combo. Her four grandparents, Aunt Brooke and Uncle Daniel, the Rivers, the Rishers, and Ms. Lynn were all in attendance. While the adults ate breakfast and mingled, several people kept slipping powdered doughnuts to Kate. So when time came for the cupcake--the memory to catch on camera of her smashing icing and cake all over her face--Kate just stared at the cupcake and looked around at all the crazy adults holding cameras telling her to eat the cupcake.

Strawberry, lemon, and banana caramel cupckaes from L'Oven Bakery. I remembered after the party that I had cupcake toppers with snowflakes on them, so just picture these with cute pink snowflake toppers.
Drink table--milk bottles for kids, mimosas for grown ups

The food table--sausage and cream cheese crescents, egg and bacon English muffins, cinnamon pita chips with fruit salsa, pink fruit cups, and powdered doughnuts
Party favors--mason jars filled with hot chocolate mix, marshmallows, and peppermints
Our royal couple, Kate and Will

We had a ONEderful year with our Kate-a-roo and were thankful to celebrate her first birthday!

A week to play with Christmas toys

Since Christmas was on a Monday, we had a full week (and an extra day) to enjoy our Christmas presents at home before we went back to school. For my kids, that meant a day of enjoying their Christmas presents then a few more days complaining about not having friends at home to play with. So we recruited friends.

Since Aunt Brooke was off school today, she wanted to keep L&B. Tripp was in town staying with Nani, so Brooke thought it would be fun to keep them all. Not sure if "fun" is the adjective I would choose, but the kids had a blast with Brooke and Daniel.

The next day, we kept Tripp at our house. The weather was warm and sunny, so we played outside most of the afternoon. Benton and Tripp played soccer and practiced their golf swings (somewhere, their Cappy's--and their daddy's--heart was full of pride). After a trip to Gracie Bleu, we managed to get all the kids to sleep before 8:00.

We cooked out with the Rivers for New Year's Eve, which was a great night. It's crazy that we now have six kids between us, so going out for dinner is out of the question. Plus, we never have found the fun in going out on NYE. So we had two babies in cribs, four toddlers (still counting L&Reed as toddlers and nobody can stop me) lying in the bed watching a movie and eating popcorn, and four adults enjoying steaks and grown-up conversation. Great end to the year! And has been customary for five years now, Lindsey left an article of clothing at Reed's house. This time, it was her shirt (we changed her to pajamas there). We have had a running joke since she started this at the age of several months that one day it will no longer be cute--or even acceptable--for her to leave clothes at Reed's house or leave his house wearing his clothes instead of her own (as she often does).

New Year's Day we went to church--Benton had been asking about church for the entire break. I hope it was partly because he loves learning about God, but I know it is also because he loves playing with all the kids in his class. That afternoon the Halls came over, and L&Madilyn played with their AG dolls while B&Mimi (his precious partner in crime) did their three-year-old thing. At one point we had three princesses and a pirate running through the house. It was a fun day to kick off 2012!