One Crazy Day

Oh my goodness...what a day. Today was Audrey's birthday party and it will definitely be a party that we won't forget anytime soon. The day first started off overcast and cold. I kept praying all morning long that the weather would improve. The party was to start sometime around noon so that Audrey would be able to get her morning nap like usual. Because the party was so early we had to rush around to complete all of the last minute details. Hubby was in charge of BBQing and I had to decorate, go pick up the balloons and ice. We were blessed to have help from my Dad, my Step-Mom, my Mom and My SIL, Isabel. Each one of these people helped either with picking up and/or making food and/or taking care of my girls. Their help was very much appreciated. The party was held right at the park right across the street from my house. In fact, here's a couple of pictures of what I see when I'm standing on my front porch. I took these pictures a couple of days ago when the weather was better.



As I was mentioning, we went about trying to get everything ready for the party. I continued to pray for the weather to improve. It was freezing outside, and I even had a call from someone asking if we were still going to have the party outside. I said yes, we were. The bounce house arrived around 10:00 a.m. and the weather was still terrible. I went to get the balloons and ice and when I came back the sun was finally coming out. I was so excited...things were starting to look up! As I continued to get ready for the party the weather started turning again. It became cold again and the wind started to pick up. All of my decorations and several other things starting flying everywhere. To top it off, we were running behind schedule with finishing the meat for the Tri-Tip sandwhiches. I just hate going to parties that say they are supposed to start at a certain time and then when you get there, they don't serve the food until and hour and a half later. Because of my feeling about that, we always try to have everything ready for when the we say the party is supposed to start. We were a bit behind today but not too bad. People started arriving, and the kids got to play in the bounce house for a little while before we ate. The food on the menu for today: Tri-Tip sandwiches, my Step-Mom's always popular potato salad, beans we always buy from a local Steakhouse, fresh fruit, a veggie platter, and small bags of chips.

When everyone arrived, we proceeded with telling everyone to start serving themselves. My poor guests...they were such troopers. As we were eating, things continued to fly around with the wind picking up even more. I felt so bad and I kept asking Hubby what he thought we should do. We all made it through eating lunch and decided it was time to give it up and take the party to our house. Thank the Lord we live right across the street! I was a little nervous about taking everyone over to the house due to the fact that I had gotten so caught up with getting everything ready this week and didn't get a chance to clean my house really good. All of that really didn't matter to me when I looked around and saw just how uncomfortable everyone was at the park. So, within a matter of minutes, all of our family and friends pitched in to help us and transfer everything to our house and we continued the party there. Our house is not really that big so it was kinda funny seeing 40+ people crammed into our house like sardines. But it sure beat being out in the freezing cold. Oh guests...I am so sorry you had to endure all of that!!!

Well, just as soon as we made the transfer over to our house, we decided to cut the cake. Here's us singing the Happy Birthday song to Audrey...

And here's a picture of her cake. I just love how it turned out!!! You can sort of see the other little cake they did especially for her in the background. That one turned out great too!


After cake, we opened presents. She got soooo spoiled. After the party, I hung up all of the new clothes she got in her closet. It must have taken up half of her closet. She got so blessed. She got several summertime outfits and lots of dresses that will be great to wear to church!



Here's my Mom feeding Audrey her cake, which she loved! What kid in our family doesn't like cake???
And here's my Alyssa girl. She totally had me cracking up. If you noticed the picture of the cake from up above, you'll remember that it had a sun on it. Alyssa wanted a piece with the sun on it soooo bad, that she waited until everyone else had been served the other pieces of cake surrounding the sun so that she could eat that specific piece. She was the last one to get served cake but she didn't mind because she got the piece with the sun on it!!! You'll notice that her piece of cake in the picture has the "sun's" frosting all gone...the part she ate first!!!


Here's a picture of the favors I made for the adults like I was talking about earlier in the week. Every year for each party I do, I make sugar cookies in the shape of the number of years that the child turned. So of course, here's a number one and a special favor tag I attached to it.

Here's a close-up of the favor tag...

And then...remember how I posted a while back about the photo board I put together? At the last minute, I decided that I didn't like the way it looked, so I made a new one yesterday. I was kinda bummed because I didn't get everyone's signature, but at least I got a few. Now, all I have to do is find a picture I like to put in it, put it in the frame I bought for it and hang it up in her room!!!


As I mentioned earlier...it's been a long day. I was pretty bummed that everything went the way it did, but it ended up working out alright in the end. I wish I would have taken more pictures but it just didn't happen. Thankfully my Dad took several pictures. Just a little while ago, My Step-Mom came over with a surprise...a super cute album they made for Audrey, with lots of the pictures they took from today. What a special gift!!!

Well, I'm still in shock that my little girl is finally one, but I'm also exicted to see all of the things that come next...walking, talking, you name it. One thing's for sure...I'm planning on enjoying every single minute!!!