Happy First Birthday Audrey!

It's crazy to think we have already come to a year. My beautiful baby has become an adorable little girl with a growing personality and curiosity about the world around her. She has taken her first steps a few weeks ago and now practices on and off. She is at about 5-6 steps before falling. She has learned to clap and gets so excited because we get so excited with her. She doesn't say any words but babbles a lot. She says "mama" sometimes but I'm not sure she knows it's me. She has not signed back at all but she definitely understands when I say words and sign to her. She now has eight teeth. Last month she was only pushing three but then five came all at the same time, poor girl. (We used Hylands teething tablets quite a bit those couple weeks and they worked wonderfully) She also waves a lot now especially when we greet random objects around the house. (Her favorite: "Hello Mr. Fan!") She plays with toys with greater interest. She puts blocks in boxes, or any other container she can find and then takes then out again. It's fascinating to watch her develop.

This past weekend we had her second Birthday party. The first was all family at my mom's house but since I had more of a hand in the second one, I thought I would share some of those pictures with you.

Daddy blowing bubbles for all the kids.

There she is with her mini cake that I made especially for her to destroy to her heart's content.

Perfect shot of me blowing out the candle and making sure Audrey doesn't get her hand in the flame.

Mmmm, the first bite of cake. I made her frosting little healthier by just mixing cream cheese with a little pure maple syrup. The cake I made the same for everyone. It's called a Harvest Cake and it includes carrots, zucchini and beets so she still gets her veggies in =)

This is the only shot we have of the cake I made for everyone. It was my first attempt at frosting a cake so it's probably better we didn't get a closer shot.

We put together a wall showing how Audrey has grown every month this first year. Sometimes it's hard to remember how small she was.

The theme was alphabet letters so I used some flash cards to spell her name.

I kept the decorations pretty simple, because it was getting overwhelming and I wanted to enjoy the day rather than be stressed about getting everything perfect. I actually saved all the cards I received at my baby shower and used them to cut circles and glue them onto string. It was pretty simple and easy I still have them up because I think they're really cute.

And a simple cardboard letter. The little felt circle is actually a hair pin but Audrey wouldn't keep it in her hair so I put it to better use :)

Overall I have to say that everything went well and of course we had way more food than we could eat as seems to be the norm with my parties. I also had favors for all the kids that I forgot to take pictures of. I kept them simple also and just bought a book for each child, then tied a ribbon around it and hung a flashcard with their initial. I found a whole bunch of cute books at my Target for $1 which really made for a frugal party favor.

But, I probably won't throw another big party for a long time. I need a break.