Emersyn's First Birthday Party

Well, we survived!!! :)

First of all, I have to give a shout out to Jesus Himself. Seriously. So Brett was supposed to go to this company picnic last week but his manager needed him to work and keep their office open during the big event, causing him to miss it. Out of sympathy, Brett's manager offered to give him Sunday off PAID instead! Brett originally was going to just leave a little early on Sunday and meet me at the party and I was going to get it all ready myself. Clearly I was not thinking when I devised this plan. We have two big vacations coming up and Brett needs to save as much vacation as he can and wasn't in a place to take the party day off. Anyways, I would have been a complete disaster without my amazing husband. He remembers everything and is the King of last minute details. My hero.

Okay, back to the party recap!!!

Sunday morning we decided to skip church because we were up super late the night before, not surprising knowing us! :) We got up and went on a quick Starbucks date with Brett while Grammy watched Emersyn and had some quality time. Brett and I picked up the cake, which was absolutely amazing. I had ordered it a week earlier and gave the baker Emersyn's invitation and said go crazy! The cake decorator is incredible at Lamb's Bakery; it is evident that she really likes her job!

Here was the cake.....

And the complimentary "smash cake" for Emersyn.....

We had a couple other errands to run and then headed home, hoping to find a sleepy baby that was ready for a nap.

False.

Emersyn was wide awake.

Even after I gave her a bath and a massage in hopes of calming her down.

We left her in her crib for an HOUR in hopes of her falling asleep. Nope. Finally I got her up and got her dressed for the party. I had bought a dress for her to wear but then saw this darling little Carter's brand shirt and thought it was perfect! Emersyn can rock a dress, that is for sure. But she is also a t-shirt and shorts kind of girl and since her party was at a park, I thought this outfit was perfect. I also conquered my biggest fear of the day.....not worrying about the weather or if enough people came to the party, nope.....my biggest fear was that both Emersyn and her hair would not cooperate with my piggy tail desires. Thank you Jesus, they were PERFECT AND ADORABLE!!!! My dream come true.......

And she stayed that way for the rest of the afternoon and finally fell asleep ON THE WAY TO THE PARTY. My mom stayed in the car while we unloaded everything and got it all set up. Poor little pooped baby, she clearly knew that something was up and was afraid of missing anything!!! :)

The weather was great, not too hot or cold....but it was a little windy! I hadn't anticipated wind at all but it all turned out just fine. We got good pictures of Emersyn but didn't capture a lot of the party, it was kind of crazy and chaotic but in a great way! We rented a pavilion in Hillsboro at a park, it was a great setting. The pavilion was covered and clean and right next to the play area and not too far from a fountain. We didn't go too crazy with decorations. We wrapped presents with hot pink paper and then made green tulle bows....we did a similar thing for our wedding reception centerpieces, a great and inexpensive way to create something that is cute and has a good sized presence! We had four large picnic tables in the pavilion, one for the cake and food and then the other three for seating. We also got balloons but since the wind was so violent, we didn't enjoy them as much as I would have hoped. Who cares though, I can handle a little wind versus scalding heat or down pouring rain! :)

The party started at 3pm and we let the babies play for a bit in the kiddie pool. Originally we had envisioned filling the pool with water and letting the babies have a good time but since it was so windy, I don't think that would been a good idea. The kiddie pool served as a great baby corall though! :)

Family picture. :)

Emersyn enjoying some Grammy time!

Tia Julie.

Brett's mom and sister.

Auntie Jenny and Uncle David.

Uncle Brock and cousin Annabel.

"Auntie" Tori & "Uncle" Andrew

Emersyn's nanny/friend and Daniel, who I am pretty sure Emersyn has a crush on!! :)

We invited lots of different people to our big celebration. We had lots of friends from our church, two couples from our birth class, some friends/neighbors, and other friends from various places in life as well as some family and family friends. It was a great mix of people and everyone seemed to mingle well.

We decided to do the cake and presents right around 4. Before we did the cake, I wanted to get a picture of the babies to remember forever.

It was hysterical, all the babies were just looking at us, puzzled as to why this large group of adults was staring at them and taking pictures and making silly noises!!

Once all that fun was settled down, we took off Emersyn's shirt (and lookig back I wish we had taken off her shorts too!) and then got her all seated and ready for her birthday song.

We sang Happy Birthday to her and it took everything in me to not cry. That was the biggest highlight of the party to me, hearing all our friends and family sing to my sweet girl and reflecting on the blessing and miracle that she is in my life. I couldn't even sing it.

Apparently Emersyn wasn't impressed at our vocal talents because she burst into tears at the end of the song! I think she was just tired; I don't think it was a shy thing.

But then Daddy came to the rescue and all tears were forgotten as she dove into her special cake!! She LOVED IT!!!

Mommy went to go serve cake but while I was gone, Daddy snapped some cute pictures of Emersyn "sharing" her cake with various people. So sweet!

Clean up is no fun!

Emersyn did great opening her presents, despite her tiredness and now sugar coma delirious-ness. She ate quite a bit of cake, turns out we *may* have forgotten to feed her lunch amidst the party planning craziness!! :) She got some amazing gifts, lots of books, clothes, and other age appropriate toys. She was actually really needing some new toys that would educate her and challenge her and that's exactly what she got! She still has a couple presents from family members to open that we saved for her actual birthday on Friday.

I love this one of Emersyn and her new baby doll. Her expression is so sweet and loving.

After the party, all Emersyn wanted to do was walk around the park with her scoot scoot!!! And since her shorts were covered in cake and pink frosting, she decided to go pantless. Pretty cute.

After presents were opened, most people left. It was a beautiful celebration of our little girl. All in all, 35 adults came and 12 kids!! What a great turn out, thank you to everyone that came and has been such an encouragement to us and such a vital part of Emersyn's life.

After we were all cleaned up!

I don't think the day could have gone any better! Thank you Lord for such an incredible reason to celebrate! :)

Time to start planning for next year.... :)