Cup-Kate's 1st Birthday Party!!!

This weekend was great! I am still recovering from it but it sure was special for my family. We celebrated the birthday of one precious little girl on Saturday. The weather was perfect, bright sunny with an occasional small breeze in the afternoon. I could not have asked for a better forecast. I love October!

Kate's 1st birthday theme was cupcake or as we like to now refer to it "cup-Kate". It was so fun to decorate. I chose bright pink, blue and green as the colors (just because those are my favorite). My friend Keri appliquéd a cupcake on an outfit I had plus her name. It was perfect and saved me about $70. Yay! Thank you Keri! She also made her a bib that matched. It was precious! Big shout out also to Mamey (Kate's grandmother and my mom) for slaving away all day Friday to help me pull things together. We couldn't have done it without you. Mamey helped me come up with a menu. We wanted it to be kid-friendly even though it was a 2pm party. We chose bean dip (corn and black beans with lots of other veggies) with chips, sausage balls, chicken nuggets, fruit salad, chocolate-pecan cookies, bright pink punch, and 48 bright pink & green cupcakes. 24 were put together as one large pull apart cupcake-cake and the other went on a cupcake stand. Shout out to Keri again for this idea! Mom and I made Kate's cake from a cupcake mold that Keri provided. It looked precious only problem was that we put it in the refrigerator to firm up the icing on Friday and I didn't take it out until time for Kate to blow out the candle. So the cake was cold and Kate didn't dig in like I thought. We are going to have a do over on her actual birthday, this Thursday, October 8th. I want to see a face in the cake! :) She did stick her finger many times in the cold cake and enjoyed. We had a few toys outside for the kids to enjoy like a miniature bean bag toss, hula hoops, pin the tail on the donkey game, a new red wagon that was Kate's present from her mommy and daddy, and sidewalk chalk. The kids also enjoy try to knock down the cupcake piñata. After several failed attempts, the kids all pulled on the strings at one time. Still no success except a rip in the bottom. I helped the cause my ripping it open. The kids received some polka dot Chinese looking pails to put their candy in plus a first birthday party favor.

After food, pinata and cake, it was time for the presents. Kate racked up on a tickle me Elmo, first learning purse, a "First tooth" (referring to Houndstooth for Alabama football) t-shirt & cheerleading uniform, a snassy black and white dress with a red shrug, a rocking horse for child under 3, a drum set, a pull behind snail with shapes to go inside, talking dog, talking baby, half dollar for this year, a sleep unicorn, Pumpkin outfit, and pop up toy. It was all around a great party. Final shout out to Grandma Gladys for heading up the clean-up crew. Somehow Petey ended up with a small pink Mohawk by the time everyone left. Petey must have allowed himself to get too close to some grubby little paws. I truly appreciate everyone that took time out of their day to come celebrate.

After the party, Don kept Kate and my mom, aunt, cousin, and I headed to Verizon Music Center for an Alan Jackson concert. Mom and I had bought the tickets on a whim a few months earlier when they were selling them for $10 at the Sugarland concert. Because the AJ concert had been announced that day, you could get the tickets for $10 without any convenience or handling charges. It was a slight bit cool (just typical football weather)and very enjoyable. The Alabama State Fair was also going on in the parking lot so there was lots to look at in the distance and in the sky with the full moon. I have probably seen Alan about 5 times but he never gets old and I knew every song but one. Good times with great girls!

Here are many pictures from the day and weekend. Kate isn't smiling in a ton of them because she chose to forgo much of her nap and completely ignore another one on her big day. She hung in there like a trooper and I believe there were one or two big smiles for the day.