Lorelai's 1st Birthday Party!

We had Lorelai's 1st birthday part last Saturday, but I've been waiting to post this until I got some pictures from my mom, Matt's mom, and Emily.  I've finally gotten all the pictures, so I can finally do this post! 

LL's birthday outfit that Grammy made (it says: Kiss me, I'm the Birthday Girl)

I took the day off on Lorelai's birthday so that we could spend the day together as a family.  I just couldn't see going to work and spending the day with other people's children, while my child was at home with her daddy celebrating her first birthday! We couldn't really do a whole lot that day because it was very rainy and very cold. We had plans to meet Kye and Emily at the park, but that couldn't happen. We ended up spending most of the day at home. The only time that we left was to go eat lunch at Cracker Barrell.

On Saturday we had Lorelai's party scheduled for 3:00. We dropped her off at Matt's mom's house around 11:00 so that she could eat lunch and take a nap while we went to the church to decorate. 

Mrs. Becky took on the job of making Lorelai's cake - and she did an AMAZING job!!

We ended up having so many people show up for the party! My guess is that there were between 30-40 people there!  We decided to let her eat her cake around 3:30 because it seemed like some people were getting ready to leave.  I don't know if she just looked up and realized how many people were singing to her or what, but all of a sudden that girl broke down!  She doesn't "ugly cry" very often, but boy did she this time! 

I ended up having to take her out of her highchair and let her sit in my lap while she ate cake. 

Eventually I was able to put her back in, but she never really got overly-interested in eating any cake.

We opened presents and man did she get a lot of stuff!  I was amazed at how many people love our daughter and wanted to share in this special day with us!  So many people (more than I even realize - I'm sure) stayed and helped us clean everything up.  That is an amazing blessing - to have friends that will help without even asking or wanting to be recognized for it!
 

What it looked like when we got everything home!

After the party was over, my mom, Victor, Laura, Gino, Ben, Emily and Kye all went out to eat at Pizza Hut.  LL was SO exhausted, but she still did so good.  Group shot minus Emily and Kye:

I guess now it's time to start thinking about next year's party!  :)