The Beans: Brooklynn Turns One

Brooklynn is ONE! I can hardly believe it. She had so much fun, starting well before the party. She loved helping me decorate her cupcakes:

We also had birthday breakfast and she got to open one present from us. We decided to make a new tradition of opening it in her actual "birthday suit" just for fun. (Actually, she was just so messy from breakfast we had to strip her down, and didn't put her clothes on yet.) We'll see how much she likes that new "tradition" in years to come. I can just see her now rolling her eyes at me saying, "MOM, I don't really have to strip down to my underwear to open my present, do I?" ha ha. Of course we won't make her, we just had quite the laugh thinking about it.

We finally got her dressed and we went with her "Birthday Girl" shirt, of course! Bought just for the occasion. (I got it on sale.) I think she liked it, she kept hugging her shirt. It was cute. It was somewhat a frivolous buy, when else can she wear that?

Then Brooklynn took her birthday nap. She really cooperated nicely. It was hard to decide when to have the party, would she sleep during the whole thing? She slept from about 10 until 12:30 and the party started at 1. What a good girl. During her nap Josh and I finished decorating for the party. Josh did a lot of the balloon blowing. I bought a helium tank and you have to blow up all the balloons 1-2 hours ahead of time or else they'll deflate. I frosted the cupcakes, set up the food, etc. We were very busy.

Then all of Brooke's friends started to arrive! So much fun! At first she was still a little groggy from her nap and hid with me in the kitchen, but then she warmed up a little and was having a ball. I think it's partly because she discovered her presents and started ripping into them before we told her she was allowed to.

Here is Brooklynn's very first cupcake! She LOVED it!

We had an adult game of "Timed Shape-O Ball". We laid the pieces out in order 1-10, just so it would be the same for everyone. I won't brag by saying who won with 12 seconds...but let's just say, "I've still got it..." I was excited that everyone got into it so much. I had a slight feeling that they'd roll their eyes and be like, "Do we have to?" But it was real competitive. It was fun.

Brooke and Sadie kept real busy playing. We usually have a lot of Brooke's toys put away under her crib and have one basket out at a time, but for her birthday we had ALL of them out. And by the end of the day they were all on the floor. Good times.