Anne's first birthday bash

Someone was obviously a hair sleepy upon party commencement. But she cheered considerably after seeing all of the people and wrapped gifts awaiting her. Although, admittedly she didn't realize that anything was actually *in* the gift bags and assorted wrappings. She was just excited about the wrappings themselves; very selfless of her, don't you think?

She absolutely loved her party, and loved being the center of attention. Although I did my usual tornadoing (mentally at least; my house standards are considerably lower than they used to be with 2 children in the house now. Exhibit A: "What did I just step on? More crumbs. Crap. There's no way I'm going to be able to sweep the kitchen floor until next Saturday. *shrug*") I did enjoy having family over. My mom's sister was in town from out of state, so we had my grandmother and all 4 of her children together, which is rare given the distance. We kept it simple: we ordered pizza and wings and I made cupcakes. I think for Henry's first birthday I had coordinating Elmo plates, cups, napkins and decor. This time I slapped the pizza on the dining room table and called it a party. So much easier.

Anne received yet more beautiful clothes for her collection. Hank lived in sleepers and rompers for the first 2 years of his life. Anne has dresses, skirts, coordinating sweaters and cardigans, leggings, blouses, trousers and specialty tights.

She also got 2 new baby dolls and a buggy to push them in, which was so cute it brought the house down. She knew just what to do with it, too, as if bred in by evolution. The instant we put it in front of her, she was off!

The baby dolls (one of whom I've named Molly, which Mike finds incredibly amusing) are taking a lot of abuse from her sucking on their faces and dragging them around behind her by their arms.

My mom got her a dolly swing which she doesn't quite know how to use yet. She picks it up by its handle and drags it behind her, the poor baby doll frantically clinging to the swing bar. Oh well. The baby currently in the swing is also the one that cries when you put her bottle to her mouth. Just what  I need; another noisy kid in my house. :)

So that's Anne's big first birthday. It was a good day and a good weekend. I cherish my memories from last year, but we had some good ones to add on this year too. Life goes on, and it's all good.