1st Birthday Madness!!!

THE PEANUT IS ONE!!!! 

 We cannot believe that one whole year has flown by already! 

E spent the morning playing with toys and hanging out in the sun! Later, we took her to the park and John made really good sausage and pepper grinders. I decided to not go with a photographer and do her birthday pictures myself and I'm pretty happy with how they came out, especially when I think about how much it WOULD have cost! 

For some reason, the pictures didn't load in order, so they start with the cake smash. We decided to let peanut eat her cake BEFORE dinner-- I know, we are really cool parents. haha Mostly it was because we knew she was going to get really dirty and end up hot and naked within a few minutes of being outside. So, these show up first, but I took the other pictures first. 

This is one of my favorites from the cake smash! She is so serious about eating some cake. 

We rarely let peanut have sugar like this.. so she was a little unsure of what she was supposed to be doing with it all. John had to step in and show her how it was supposed to be done! 

Really dad.. you mean I just smash this cake, eat the frosting, and then throw the rest?! --Can I do this with all my food now? 

                          

Cake or balloons? Balloons or cake? She's not sure which one is more fun!! 

These pictures below were taken BEFORE we went to the park. She got to open her present from mommy and daddy. 

We got her a new table that flings balls all over the apartment. What is there not to love about that, if your 1?! 

Now for the good part! 

These pictures are my absolute favorite. When I was getting ideas for her photo shoot, I got a neat idea from Pinterest.  Every year on your daughter's birthday, you take a picture of her in your wedding dress. Not only does it show how big she gets over the years, but also you have the pictures to display on her wedding day!-- cool huh? So, thats just what I did. I never thought that they would come out just this good, but they are absolutely precious and we even had people in the park stop and tell us so. Needless to say, I am so glad that I saved the money and did the pictures myself. Another photographer never could have captured this--my baby girl in my dress. so cool! 

Im pretty sure this is my favorite picture of all time

Or maybe this one

Ah, I just cant decide

Have I mentioned how much I love this girl?!

The next set of pictures, E got to put on her own special dress and its pretty stinkin' cute! 

THEN E got to put on her special Minnie dress to give everyone a preview for the party this weekend! I made it myself! 

How can you not love this sweet baby face?

MOMMMM I'm done taking pictures, can I have my cake now?!

Now, here is another idea that I gathered from one of my Pinterest boards.. what's sweeter than a sweet 1 year old holding a copy of her newborn picture. :) 

Wait, mom thats not me.. that cant be me. Daddy never puts me in his pocket anymore!

Well, there you have it. Evelyn's first birthday! She's rehearsed and ready to party on Sunday! To all the friends and family getting ready to travel to Georgia this weekend, travel safe and get those summer clothes ready. We're in a permanent sauna down here. <3 

Fun in the sun...and the dark!

Saturday, we went back to Atlanta for the day because Grace and I had a 5K saturday night. We went to the aquarium again in the morning and then walked around the park outside the aquarium. The park is a really neat reminder of the 1996 olympics.

Hanging out in Centennial Olympic Park 

Later in the day we went to do some shopping at a huge (and really expensive) mall and then headed to get some dinner. We went to a great little burger place called flip burger.. one that we were supposed to be eating at with Abe and Grace. However, we didn't know that there were 2 locations and my GPS on my phone took us to the one further away... the traffic getting there was horrible, so we ended up eating at the restaurant, but in 2 different locations. Its pretty funny now, but it wasn't at the time! We then sat in traffic again on the way to Atlanta Motor Speed way to get to the 5K. It was also pouring and I was starting to have my doubts about running it! Eventually the skies cleared up and Grace and I geared up for the electric run.. which of course consisted of lots of glow sticks and hair glitter. Below E is really excited because she got her very own glow stick necklace to cheer us on with.

Getting ready for the 5K

Pre-race

The picture below was while we were waiting for the run to start. It didn't start until 8:50, so that it was plenty dark! We were right in front of where the run kicked off from and they were throwing out free stuff. We didn't catch any t-shirts, but we did catch some foam glow sticks to run with.

Waiting for it to start 

View from outside the 5K. 

The picture above is one that john took just before the run started. It was such an awesome run! It was really muggy because it had been raining earlier, but we ran around a lake that was lit up with umbrellas and glow sticks. It was pretty cool. We also ran through the tunnels into the race track and even got to run on the speedway! I have never been to a NASCAR race, so it was pretty cool that we got to run on the track.  Just as we finished our run, it started to pour again.. it ended up being perfect timing and we all had such a great time!

Post-run--just as it started to pour again! 

Hugging the peanut after the run

Sunday, John and E made me blueberry waffles and then we headed to Callaway Gardens. We had heard from several people that it was a really cool place.. and it turns out they were right! The "gardens" weren't just gardens. They had a big lake with a beach, some cool restaurants, lots of hiking, golf, tennis, hotels, and even a tree-top adventure that includes zip-lining through the trees and over another lake! It's about 35 minutes from the house and I think we will be spending a lot of time here this summer. The town around it is pretty small, but its called Pine Mountain and there is tons more hiking, lakes and cabins to rent, so we may even try some camping here one weekend!

Despite the warm weather lately, it hasn't quite been hot enough to warm up the water yet, so its still pretty cold, but true to her Colorado roots, E LOVED splashing around in the cold water. 

The beach was really nice and had lots of sand for peanut to eat. And she did eat quite a bit! 

John washing all the sand off peanut. She had it everywhere! 

There is a vegetable garden that you can walk around that looks like something straight out of a peter rabbit book. It was a quiet little garden and the perfect place to end our Mother's day adventure. 

I love this peanut with my whole heart and I could not be more proud to be her momma. She brings such joy to our lives every day! 

Its hard to believe that this day last year I was (very) pregnant and only 10 days away from giving birth to the most beautiful baby girl! 

...And as a final to your day, here is proof how much E loves sabot! Auntie Grace loves to come over and play with her and she loves that too!!