the party

Alright. I did it. And it's a long post. Real long.

We went with the ladybug theme and went a little overboard.

But it was fun.

Her little cake to the right was made by Ben =)

The boxes to the right with her handprints were chinese takeout boxes filled with crackle cookies and thank you cards.

I had two garlands on either side of this arch filled with b/w pics of her first year.

Spells out Lotte, her nickname.

We were blessed to have so many friends come. We had some tiny friends of hers, her babysitters from last year when I worked, family friends, and some coworkers.

here is miss Abigail who is very much into bees like Charlotte is with ladybugs

darling Maizy

'Vitale' and 'Kimmerly' from school

some more friends, Auntie Julie (left) used to babysit Charlotte when I went to work

the birthday girl in her birthday shirt I made her

Andy and Rydin digging into the cookie decorating

these pjs said "i'm not sheepy" - love!

Abigail and her daddy, Trent

of course she got ladybug-themed presents like her ball above and beanie below (made by Abigail's mommy, Iuliana)

and here we come to the cake eating... it was amazing

she did exactly what you'd imagine a one year old would do with a personal cake in front of her

we were quite proud

she picked at it for a moment

and then dug right in

two fisting it

"ohhhh... I'm so full..."

"that's okay... I'll just stick it down my diaper for later"

one happy kid

that is... until we took the remains of her cake away and grabbed her to take a bath

her skin was slightly pink for the rest of the day because of all of the red food dye

* I have a video of the cake eating in action, but I haven't put it onto my computer from her camera yet.

Happy Birthday again, Charlotte!