Life With The Shirleys: the party

The party of all parties was this afternoon. Love Bug's 1st birthday. Surrounded by family and friends, we celebrated the first year of life with our sweet girl. In so many ways I feel like she should be older than 1 because I just can't imagine life without her. I feel like she has been a part of this family forever. Today it just reminded me how blessed I am to have two beautiful and healthy children.

Love Bug looked adorable (if I do say so myself) in her pillowcase ladybug dress made special for this party. She greeted her guests with a smile but really only let me, D or Meega hold her the entire party. She was tired and overwhelmed and not interested in being passed around. But she was a trooper. She loved the food and her cousin Sydney kept her entertained in her high chair.

During the gift opening portion of the party, Love Bug just sat in my lap the entire time while she watched her brother open the gifts. She loved looking at all the cards and watching her gifts fly by her while The Mayor went from gift to gift tearing into the paper and gift bags. Every dress that he pulled out he would look at and say "oh, this is so bootiful" and then throw it in the pile and move on to the next gift. Let's just say, it took no time to get through the gifts. The Mayor opened, looked at the gift and then quickly moved to the next gift. He wasn't messing around.

We moved from presents to cake. As expected, she did not like her party hat and didn't know what to think about a room full of people staring at her while singing to her. When the smash cake was put in front of her, she put the tip of her index finger in the icing and then looked at it with a look on her face that said "what the heck is this? and what am I supposed to do with it?" She cried until her daddy came to her rescue and then would only eat the icing that he put on his finger. So no cake in the hair, icing smeared all over the face pictures this year. Maybe next year.

We still had a handful of guests in the house when Love Bug went down for her nap. There was no putting it off anymore. She was down for the count before D even closed her bedroom door, and we didn't hear a peep from her for 3 hours. The Mayor wasn't too far behind. He was beyond exhausted and went down for a 3 hour nap himself. While they slept, D, Aunt Nat, Uncle Tom and myself walked to the Mexican restaurant and enjoyed some adult beverages. Much needed after the whirlwind weekend.

Tomorrow will be a relaxing day at home. No plans, no agenda. Just the way I like it.

Happy 1st birthday to the best daughter a mommy could ever ask for. I love you more than words could ever express and can not wait to see the girl you become. Looking forward to MANY more birthdays together.