Flowers, Butterflies and a Sweetie Pie

On Saturday we celebrated with our family and friends for Charlie's first birthday. We are very blessed with a big family and wonderful groups of friends. Some of our new friends that I met from blogging and twitter attended as well, Steph and Amy! We are thankful to everyone who came and missed those who could not attend.

I planned for months. I worked on projects and crafts for weeks. Gary and I spent 2 whole days running around and gathering all the essentials to make the party a success. The hard work paid off. Everyone had fun. Lots of laughter was heard and I hope we did not disturb the library too much! Gary's Mimi even called us the next day and left a voice mail stating "The birthday party was wonderful. It was one of the best parties that I have ever been too. I was entertained the entire time. Thank you again for hosting a great day!" Since she is 89 and has been to a few shin-digs in her day, I will take that as a wonderful compliment.

I made all of the decorations. My cousin Carol started a bake shop out of her house and made the cakes/cupcakes. They were delicious. (If you are in the Pgh area and need her info, email me!) Gary and I made the cupcake stands, painted picture frames to match the theme and even bought huge pink and green buckets for the drinks to match!  We ordered chicken and had a ton of fresh fruit and veggies. Lots of different kid friendly snacks. It was a delicious lunch!

The kids played hard. They ran and ran and ran. Danced and sang to all their favorite songs. The parents enjoyed conversations and watching the kids.

All 3 of my kids liked opening all of Charlie's gifts. She is a special little girl and was showered with love. She took a break out of opening gifts to do her favorite thing, READ a book!

Next up was cake. Charlie dug in and loved every minute of it. Dominic got in on the action with my sister and had a mini-cake battle as well.

Charlie ended her party with a nap while friends and family held her.

You think with all this fun that the day would have ended there, right? Well, you are wrong, haha. We went to an impromptu after party at our friend Stef and Grants house. It was so nice of them to continue the fun at their house. We brought over yummy extra food and hung out until almost 11 pm!

We are truly blessed with the great people that we know and love. Happy Birthday Charlie. WE ALL LOVE YOU!