Violet's First Birthday Party

We celebrated our baby's first birthday a few weeks ago with her current favorite book as the party inspiration, Little Blue Truck .  Violet got to wear her beautiful handmade (!!) dress from my dear friend Melodye.  Violet received the gift after she was just born as a surprise and I've been holding out on it until her birthday party.  It fit perfectly and looked absolutely beautiful.  Thank you so much Melodye, I treasure the dress and the pictures of my one year old (!) in it so much.  Such a special touch to a big day!

We went big on the invite list since it was a first birthday and invited into our extended family circle and lots of friends.  I was so grateful that my cousin Kara who had to work during the party, chose to come early to play with the big kids so that I could get things set up and finishing baking. (thank you Kara!!)

We got lucky that even though it was a chilly day, the rain held off until after the party ended, so I was very grateful we got to spend a lot of time outside playing (also, I don't know if everyone would have fit inside!)

We had meatball sandwiches (Violet's favorite!) and pasta salad (thanks Abba), and pierogies (thanks Gigi).  We tried to keep it simple but plentiful. I baked the cupcakes, cake, and smash cake, and used the book as inspiration for the cake and colors.

As for an activity, I did a read aloud of The Little Blue Truck and then we did a little coloring/glue activity with a blue truck and the animals from the story.  Cousin Ariel put together a truck for Violet and I have it slipped inside her first birthday day in her baby book as a keepsake.

Then it was on to the cake, which we did outside to help with mess clean-up.  We sang happy birthday (I got choked up, as usual) and then we let Violet go at her cake.  

The kids and I were trying to guess all week how Violet would react to her smash cake and Gemma ended up being the right guesser:  Violet picked at the icing and then whined about her hands being sticky (hah).  

 

But most of the party, we just got to play and enjoy our company.  Violet (and all of us) are so blessed to have so many people in our lives that are loving and generous and invested in us and our dreams.  It always is so overwhelming to me to recognize just how lucky we all are to be surrounded by so much love and laughter.

As the third baby, Violet is in a position to be surrounded by a lot of kids.  The party was overrun by little hands and feet and BIG voices.  We had kids running, laughing, and stealing cupcakes all over this place for the birthday party.  It really felt like a party!

We ended the party with some gift-opening (heavy on the big sibling help) and saying goodbye and thank you to all our guests.  (thanks Abba and Gigi for cleaning up!!) The kids were thankfully tired after a long evening of playing with friends, so Sunday night bedtime went fairly easy after we got everyone settled down after such a fun day.

So, now we have a one year old baby.  how?
All my kids' first years went by fast (in hindsight), but this one.  incredible.  where did the year go, I honestly cannot believe it.  In my 32 years of life, I'm going on record of proclaiming this past year going by the fastest yet.  someone hold me.

we love you so Violet Mary.
even when you get so big.
Mumma