Sophia's 1st Birthday Party!

Ahhh, so much better. The lack of exhaustion that is. Sophia's party was fun and mostly stress free. I stayed up a little late Friday night getting food prepped and some of next weeks meals started, but no matter how much you do in advance, there's just always last minute things that prevent you from looking like you have it all together. Ha! At least for me anyway. When guests arrived, I was finishing up the baked, pita chips and making the punch.

Earlier this morning, during Sophie's first nap, Will and I ran out for some errands. It was nice spending some one on one time with just him before the chaos surrounded his sister. We had five places to run (gas station, grocery store, bank, bakery for birthday cupcakes and - saving the best for last - the library) so we made a point to call them "first", "second", "third", etc. - haha! I will make a lesson out of anything. It was cute hearing him say "and then we're going to the grocery store second". Will is very good when we're out like that and I know he enjoys the time just the two of us - he told me "I love you, mommy" about a million times. Sweet boy.

Back at home, Sophie models her soft, pink, birthday crown from Grandma Riedeman. (Remember, she's in the phase of pulling off ALL hats and hair clips now, so this didn't last long.)Will wanted to wear a hat too so he ran to get his fireman's hat.

The day timed out pretty well. Craig fed the kids a good lunch and then they went down easily for a nap. Meanwhile, I even took a short nap myself (and I really think that made a huge difference in my energy level at the end of the day) and got to shower and begin setting up while they were still sleeping. Here's the buffet with the desserts and a few of Sophie's birthday cards. Craig picked up some fresh lilacs from his parent's house to brighten up our decorations.Oh! The little birds nest treats turned out so cute I think! And they were super easy! The directions are from Family Fun (http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/hummingbird-nests-847672/) and they made for a festive addition to our theme. They're really just coconut and chocolate, so I think they taste like an Almond Joy candy bar.

Here are the cupcakes I ordered from the bakery (being supervised by Penny & Joy) - half of them have the owl picks, and half are topped with jelly beans.

I set out our favor bags on top of the wine rack with the cute owl card from my mom.

I considered a banner of some sort, but didn't really know what I wanted and didn't see a good place to hang one in our house. So instead, I used these (photo?) clip stands to display a "Happy Birthday, Sophia!" message on the food table.

Can you see the little, branchy wreaths under the small bowls on either side of the flowers? And all the food was out in white, square or rectangle dishes.

I found a recipe online for Bee's Berry Punch (sorry this picture was after a few cups had been filled so it wasn't quite as pretty) and it consisted of ginger ale, cranberry juice, pina colada mix, frozen mixed berries and raspberry sherbet. Mmm!

Sophie's personal smash cake, compliments of Great Grandma Konesky. Grandma even made a healthier option by my request: a banana cake (made with applesauce in place of the oil) and cream cheese frosting. For more ideas on healthy first birthday cakes, check out: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/tipFirstBDay.htm.

What a difference from Will's first birthday when he was the only child around! It was so nice having lots of little ones here to make the party more "entertaining". And they were all girls! Our breakfast nook was loaded with car seats! :)

I like to take a picture of Craig and I with the birthday child. We have a nice one from Will's second birthday. And I love Sophie's party dress!

Some of our guests:

Great Grandpa & Grandma Konesky, Mya, Stella and Amanda

Great Grandpa King, Nana & Molly (who's due in six weeks!) Will LOVED having some playmates at his house:

Addyson & Cora - two super adorable little ladies! Sophie with Nana & Papa

Sophie with Great Grandpa King - (still fascinated with my mom's water bottle)

Aunt Kelly with baby Celia

Aunt Casey with almost-11-month-old Stella

Papa has his hands full with the twins!

Uncle Zach - extreme close-up

Uncle Taylor & Aunt Amanda

Uncle Steve & Aunt Kelly

My mom holding Cecilia, who's looking lovely in lavender.

Will & Addyson hop on the rocking horse. Casey & Wes brought a Mylar balloon, which was all the rage with Will. He carried it all over for most of the party.

Addyson is the daughter of one of Craig's best friends from high school. Isn't she adorable? And this was after a couple hours of hard-core play time.

Sophie with Auntie Amanda

I love this one of Soph with her Godmother, Kelly.

Addyson and Sophia coordinated so nicely! Soph is such a lady, eh?

Grandma and Papa Riedeman got Sophie one of the best gifts! It's tough coming up with "big" presents for the second child. We already have a wagon. She'll probably use his tricycle. We don't have room for a doll house or a kitchen right now. But wait! I found this cool (easy-store-cause-it-folds-flat) picnic table that will be perfect for birthday parties and outdoor summer lunches for the kids! The (approximately) 2-year-old crowd found it very helpful today!

I love Cora's expression in these next two.

Look Grandma! Sophie climbed right up onto the table all by herself to eat her graham cracker! No one helped her into this position at all. She's such a monkey.

After everyone finished eating, Will helped me pass out the party favors to the kids. Here's Stella with her butterfly hairclip and mini owl doll.

Then Grandma and Papa Riedeman came through again with a special gift for Will to open while Sophie opened her presents.

Woo hoo! New race car underwear!

Unfortunately, Sophia had absolutely ZERO interest in opening presents once again.

So I had to enlist the help of two slightly more seasoned gift-openers: Addyson & Cora.

Watching gift opening. I'm guessing Casey stuck Mya's hairclip in mom's hair 'cause it matched her shirt? :)

Missy Mya with her mommy.

Sophie was still mostly entertained by climbing all over the picnic table. She loves it!

Then she came over to show me her sippy cup. Oops! She needed more water. :)

Would have liked to zoom and crop this one (Uncle Taylor was the photographer here) but it's a nice pic of Craig watching the gift opening.

Fighting to set herself free of this gift madness.

Showing daddy her new pillow from the Rethman's for her big girl bedroom.

Will checks out Sophie's new bike helmet (for the bike trailer) from Taylor, Zach & Amanda.

The little girls playing in the tissue paper.

All done! Thank you, everyone!

Craig & Taylor - lounging.

Will - just finishing a (very messy) special cookie that we picked up at the bakery this morning. I didn't have a party favor for Will so I got him a cookie with an elephant frosted on the front of it. Addyson helped him eat the other half and the kids were covered in blue and gray icing.

Finished with gifts and ready to get changed out of her party dress and into something she can get messy while eating her cake. (Sophie made several wardrobe changes today!)

Okay, so this is the beginning... she appears to be enthusiastic and excited about this. Everyone is singing Happy Birthday while daddy delivers her cake and makes sure she doesn't burn herself.

Will runs up to help blow out her candle.

And we attempt to don the hat for this event. A first finger full of frosting...

...and a taste...

...and I'm sorry, folks, but that's where the cake festivities end. She refused to take another bite! I don't think she was afraid to get her fingers messy, because I even cut a smaller piece out and offered to feed it to her. And Will and I can attest to it's tastiness, because we ate some later. I think she was just getting tired (it clearly appeared that way) and maybe it was too sweet for her right then? Mommy got several teases from the grandpas for "only ever feeding her healthy stuff, and now she refuses the sweets"... wow... how awful of me. :)

So instead, she ate some dinner: peas, black beans, bagel and watermelon and scarfed it down. Hehe! :)

Will and Addyson seem to mutually love puzzles. They played with puzzles the last time Addyson came to visit too!

Cora jumps in on the fun.

Papa comes to chat with Sophie about her special day.

Meanwhile, the Rethman girls eating their supper with an audience (LOL) on the kitchen floor. :)

Great Grandma comes to kiss Sophie goodbye.

After cake/dinner (she was soaked with water) and before bath, Sophie switched to some long sleeves and pants... and climbed all over the picnic table again.

She spies Aunt Casey making faces at her over the table top.

Stella is amazed by the inside of a shiny, gift box.

Trying on a new bucket hat and holding her balloon.

Then after bath and saying goodbye to the last guest, Sophie was ready for bed. It was a long and fun day and she conked out as soon as she lay down at 7:30. I love these few pictures of Sophia with her daddy, sitting on the kitchen floor, recapping the day.

Will conked out too right after laying down (which is unusual for him) around 8:15. And then Craig and I cleaned up the house and ordered pizza for dinner. All in all, it was a great party. We didn't even mind the rain.

Here are a few pictures of Sophie's presents. So much for not needing clothes, huh? But they are all SUPER cute and at least some are several sizes bigger for the future.

An owlie bank and pillow and a Little Miss book from the Rethman's, Melissa & Doug wooden "cutting food" (so cool!) from the Mann's, a plush book and puppet set from Grandma & Papa Riedeman, some more Sandra Boynton books and a cool colors book from the Pearson's, a bike helmet Taylor, Zach & Amanda. Sophie also got some sun hats, savings bonds and money for her college fund from her very generous family.

And lots of cute cards, including one that plays music (which both Will & Sophie rocked out to).

So having done it both ways now, I think a smaller affair is MY personal favorite and seems to be easier on the birthday child. I actually don't feel like my exhaustion level is maxed out right now and that's the polar opposite of how I felt after Will's first birthday. Towards the end when a few guests started leaving, Sophie started to "come out of her shell" a bit and have fun playing. The bigger the crowd, the more overwhelmed the child. It was a fun day.