Time for presents!

Okay, last birthday post, I promise.  :)  On Jane's actual birthday (Saturday) we had a little family party complete with presents and cupcakes.  Pa and Nana and GG went in together to buy Jane a play kitchen for her room and come clothes.  The kitchen was already put together, so I just wrapped the front of it.  

 Papa Jon and Gramma bought her a storage unit/toy box for her toys and some clothes...and this cute little tea set.  I just wrapped the tea set for her to open.

 The tea set was quickly taken over by Peter.....

 ...then by Justin.  Don't worry, Jane did eventually get a turn!  You can see the little kitchen in the background.  I have already had a few gourmet meals prepared for me.

 Cupcakes for my Lady.  She had strawberry at her big party so I thought she needed to taste chocolate too.

 I just love her face in this picture!  We are in the middle of the birthday song...

 She really didn't like to eat it.  She got some on her finger and kept holding it out to Brent to wipe it off.  Such a dainty girl.

Justin detected that she may not eat her cupcake and decided to help her out.

She did try it in the end....and gagged on the sprinkles.  Oh well.  She doesn't have any teeth...so I'm sure that she will learn to love sweets one day.  Happy Birthday, Lady!  We love you to pieces!!

Birthday Photo Shoot!

Who could resist taking pictures of this sweet little ONE YEAR OLD?!  I can't believe that our little girl is a year.  This has been the best year of blessings, love and thanksgiving.  God snuggled Jane into our lives a year ago today and we are amazed by how much we all love each other. God is so good to us and has allowed us to see some of His power, creativity and love through the life of Jane Elyse.  Oh how we love her!  

 So I got out my camera and took some pictures of our sweet Lady....such a fun thing to do together!

 "Moooooom!!!  Stop calling my name already!!"

 This is the jewelry box and pearls that we got her for her birthday.  Every girl needs a place to put her bling. :)

 So cheesy.  I love it!

Lady Jane's first partaaay!

So Lady's birthday is actually Saturday (you will see pics of that soon) but we had a little part for her today.  We invited her little Sunday school class and any siblings that they might have.  It was so cute to see all our friends come and help us celebrate our little blessing.

 This was the cake table.  I was going for shabby chic, vintage charm.  :)

 I made the bird frame for her with the intention of hanging it in her room afterward.

 My first attempt at fondant.  It was harder than I thought it would be without my tutor, Becca there.  Becca is in the Sunday School class that I teach and she is very talented at cake decorating.  She gave me a lesson and boy, she makes a tricky thing look so easy!  But mine came out ok.  I just need to perfect the technique.  All in good time, I suppose.

 The garland was made out of the little hair clips that we gave out as party favors.  :) Jane has one in her hair in the upcoming pics.

 This was an idea I took from Pinterest.  Baby food jars wrapped in scrapbook paper and hung to display flowers.  So festive!

 Getting ready to receive guests....

We anchored balloons to the front yard to mark the house as the "place to be"!

Since the girls got hair flowers, the boys got marshmallow shooters.  :)  I found this on pinterest too...you put a balloon over the mouth of a plastic cup, load a mallow in, pull back hard and let it fly!  So much fun!  I made a basket full of them and set them out with a big bowl of marshmallows.

We lined the kids up and did a type of "21 Gun Salute" for Jane.  :)  I love Peter's face.

All of our sweet friends!

Gift time!  Jane liked the paper.  :)

All partied out.  Daddy's girl getting some milk before bedtime.  Shew, what a night!  Stay tuned for more fun as Jane officially turns 1 on Saturday!

They're done!

For weeks and weeks we have been watching the park on our street being built.  We drove by every day to watch the progress and even took Coke and cookies to the hard-working crew.  Now, it is done!  We literally walk to the end of our street and play!  So that is what we did last night...

 There are the new little "twirly" things that go around, and around, and around....I had a pretty funny experience trying to get off....ask me about it when you see me.  :)

 My little super hero.  Beautiful, epic shot as he leaps into the sunlight.

I foresee many happy trips to the park and many fun memories to be made with "The Littles"!