Sunday, May 16th was Emiley's big day. Her very first birthday. We had gotten home sort of late the night before from Kari and Pat's wedding, so she slept in a bit Sunday morning. About 7:15, she started to stir...then bounce around...then sing, so I went up to get her.
(Yeah, she sleeps in just her diaper most of the time. She gets really hot while she's sleeping, and will wake up all sweaty if she's wearing pajamas)
Em used to jump right up and reach for me when she saw me, but these days, she likes to play around in her crib and "walk" along the sides for a little while. This morning, she discovered that she could pull her stuffed animals down off her bookshelf. Then, she couldn't figure out how to get them inside with her to play with.
Then it was time to get the ol' diaper changed. Emiley always likes to show off her flexibility.
Then she had her favorite breakfast (okay, pretty much the only thing she ever has for breakfast), yogurt with strawberries and rice crispy cereal. It doesn't really look like she's enjoying it here, but really, she did.
She decided to feed herself some of it.
After breakfast, we headed to church. Emiley got lots of "Happy birthday"s from our church family. She decided that since it was her birthday, she should be able to wander around all over the place. She tried crawling out into the middle aisle and played under our pew for a while. And of course, there was the singing that she's become famous for.
We made a quick trip into WM to get some last-minute items, then headed home for a nap (well, Em napped, Momma and Daddy got to work). Emiley napped for about an hour, then woke up for a snack and some playtime. Then that crazy little thing was tired again, and laid back down around 12:30.
Momma and Daddy kept watching the radar, waiting to decide if we should set up inside or outside. We finally decided around 2:15 that we'd go ahead and set up outside. (Em was asleep) We started setting things up, and it turned out that we had more food and stuff than I'd anticipated, but we got it all squished on the table. Grandpa Riker brought over a tarp and helped Adam rig it up in case it should start raining again. We got everything set up, just in time. The guest started arriving (and Em was still asleep - keep in mind that I haven't said she'd had lunch yet). When Em was still not up by 3:10, I went ahead and woke her up...I mean, it was
her party.
It was chilly that day, so we had to modify the birthday outfit a little bit, by adding tights and a little pull-over.
When everyone started eating some sweet treats, Em decided she needed to be a part of that too, so she had a couple of corneys.
Then it was cake time (mostly because Em's "cake" was starting to melt).
Trying to figure out what exactly Momma was bringing her way.
Em just did not know what to think about everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to her.
Em's "cake" was part of a cupcake with cool whip, strawberries, kiwi, and pineapple. Em is such a fruit fanatic that I thought she would really enjoy it. She didn't dig in as much as I thought she would (I think she was still half asleep and confused by all the people).
She apparently wanted some help from Shaylee.
Momma helped her out some. She wasn't really crazy about the time I put cool whip on her nose.
Well, that was fun. She's had it.
After the cake mess, we went in to change. She got a "My first birthday" onesie from Grandma. She wanted another corney on the way back out.
The little girls enjoyed playing with the balloons.
Here's some cuties. Keagan, Emi, and Madison.
Then it was time to open gifts. Needless to say, Em was more than spoiled.
Checking out the penguin Uncle Jake won for her at Holiday World.
Some cool shades from Garrett, Kelly, and Mya. (She didn't want to leave them on...I think it'll take some practicing)
Unkie Matt and Patty got Em some sort of monkey/pillow thing, which she LOVED! She kept giving it awwws and lovin's.
Em had had enough of sitting on the table. She kept wanting me to hold her, so we moved to the ground, and that kept her satisfied for the rest of the time.
Shaylee was a good helper, bringing the gifts to us.
Noisy blocks from Uncle Brad and Madison.
Some Nike shoes from Uncle Patrick and Aunt Lisha.
Singing cow from Uncle Bradley.
Love this. "Emiley" sign from Amber, Matt, Conner, and Teagan.
Haha. Still playing with the shoes.
I decided to make the cake. It was a lot of work, and didn't turn out perfect, but it was my first stacked cake, and I think it was pretty cute.
Turns out, no one cut into it until the end of the evening, when I wanted to show that it was three different kinds of cakes. (Well, all the layers were white cake, but the bottom was white cake (colored pink, yellow, and green) with white icing, the middle was white (colored pink, yellow, and green) with strawberry frosting and real strawberries, and the top was white cake with chocolate icing and chocolate chips).
We had a strawberry marshmallow pop tree, a cookie tree, a lollipop tree, and plenty of cupcakes too.
Em wanted to thank everyone for coming and being so sweet!
After the party, Em had some dinner, then we loaded all the tables, chairs, tarps, tents, etc...and returned them to their rightful places, played at Grandma and Grandpa's for a little while, then headed back home and went to bed. All in all, Emi had a great birthday, thanks to so many family and friends.
Oops. Scratch that "and went to bed" part. I completely forgot that
that was the night that I laid Em down and she was quite for about 20 minutes, but then she started screaming and jumping around in her bed, so she got up and played, and played, and played. Around 10:30, Adam and I were both exhausted, so we took her into our bedroom and she jumped and jumped and jumped on our bed...and finally, we all just crashed after 11. So evidently, Em wanted to finish her birthday with a slumber party.
And she
did not want to get up Monday morning.
