Gracie's BIG Day

Began like this:

She woke up a happy girl because she knew that September 15th is her BIRTHDAY! That's right, our little girl is one year old. The night before we got the house all ready by hanging lots of balloons (her VERY favorite thing), and the Happy Birthday Banner I had just finished (notice the second "H" is missing though...Jenny had to bring it to me later that day! :) ). At random times during the day Gracie would point up at the balloons and laugh. I think that was her favorite part of the whole birthday experience.close up of the banner including the H:

We had to take her last monthly picture by the kitty (see the sidebar for month to month growth)! Amazing how she's grown since the first month...I, of course, caught her mid-sentence. She was talking about how much fun she was having on her birthday, in case you were wondering.

Jared had to go to school the whole day, so Gracie and I took him some lunch, then headed to a fun duck pond. Animals = another of Gracie's favorites...She kept trying to dive in the water head first! Apparently she wanted a little birthday dip.

The whole day I let her do things I don't normally allow...heck, it's her birthday-- she might as well see what it's like to fiddle with my cell phone and call China, Germany, Fiji....

She got to eat as much of Mom's cereal as she wanted, make finger smudges on the mirror as much as her heart desired, and poke her little fingers in all of the food in the fridge....all of her birthday wishes came true! Later that day (after a LONG birthday nap!) we had some people over for birthday cake. Gracie loved watching everybody and adored being the center of attention. Here are all of the birthday party kids!: (Rhiannon, Brendan, Crew, Brady, Ruby, Avery and Addi).
All of the party attendees were: My sister Jenny's family (Jenny, Spencer, Brady, Avery, Crew, Ruby), my niece and nephew Brendan and Rhiannon, my Grandma McMillan, Jared's cousin Brennan and his wife Hillaree and their daughter Addi, and our friend Kimmy. It was a fun bunch!

Finally, the moment everybody was waiting for, CAKE TIME! I can't believe how much cake Gracie ate. I shouldn't be surprised, she's a pretty big/good eater....here is the cake: (a ladybug if you can't tell!) She was a little distracted...at first by the people, then by the balloons...

We gave Gracie the entire head for her own little cake...she LOVED IT and was all business--not even cracking a smile, just downing cake as fast as possible. She ate it to the very last crumb!! When I tried to take the plate away she grabbed on and would NOT let go...she wanted those crumbs. She's one of those lick-your-plate kind of girls :)

She didn't quite get the "opening presents" concept...she liked ripping the paper, but mainly just liked playing with the toys once they were out of the paper. She got so many great gifts that will keep her plenty busy for a while! ( I love the picture of her pushing Ruby on the car!)

We love our messy little birthday girl!

We asked Gracie what she wanted to do to end her first birthday with a bang and this is what she came up with:

Nothing better than runnin' around in your Birthday suit on your birthday!

On a GIANT sugar high.