Stella's First Birthday Party

I know I keep saying it – but I cannot believe it was already time to celebrate Stella’s first birthday! It really does seem like such a short time ago that I was pregnant and delivering her, bringing her home for the first time, stressing over nursing, dealing with reflux issues {still dealing with those}, watching her take her first baby food bites, getting excited when she crawled with her belly off the floor and now watching her take her first steps…it really does put perspective on how fast they grow and change. I love her so much more than I ever could have imagined and she’s changed my life so greatly.

I have to admit though, the next few birthday parties will probably be a lot more low-key until she can start remembering them and wanting to have her friends join in!

I pretty much had most everything (cake table, food table, present table, favor table) all set up on Friday night and had moved our dining room chairs to the living room for more seating and put some fold out chairs on our back porch.

Also, for the older kiddos at the party, I ordered a bounce house that arrived about an hour before the party started. That was such a hassle-free thing. The guy showed up, set up the bounce house, and came back and took it down when we were done. Easy peasy! Stella screamed with absolute terror when she first got in it. It took her a little bit to get warmed up to it, but I think she ended up liking it!

 Everyone mingled around and snacked for a while, then I decided it was time to sing “Happy Birthday” and let Stella dig in to her cake.

My little sweetie definitely has a sweet tooth! She LOVED her cake and would have eaten the entire thing, but a several minutes into her shoveling cake in her mouth she was looking really full, so I decided she probably had had enough. Please excuse the massive amount of cake-eating pictures – but she was so funny. She first put her hands lightly on the cake and then you could see her starting to squeeze and try and lift the whole thing up to her mouth, and then it just crumbled in her hands. After Daddy gave a taste of some icing she quickly realized this was going to be a yummy experience!

Present opening was a TASK! Stella was definitely more interested in the tissue and wrapping paper than in the actual gifts. Stella made out REALLY well with all her new toys and clothes!

She’s going to be set for a while with all the new outfits she got!

I’m so appreciative of everyone for coming and celebrating with us! I feel very blessed to have a healthy almost-one-year-old and wonderful friends and family to share these joys!

Here are a few more pics from the day!

{Passing out the cake!}

{Stella got this rocking chair from Blake's grandparents and she loves it!}

{G-Mommy and Stella}

{Her first little cowgirl hat}

{Playing with her new toys}

{She loves that she can stand on her own and take a couple steps!}

{Yummy cupcakes!}

{Food table}

{Sweet Cutter}

{Not real sure what she's doing here!}

{Loving her rocking chair}