Ida's 1st Birthday Festivities

We had a fun weekend filled with celebrating Ida's birthday along with some of our other family members.  Friday, I took off work so that I could hang out with my girls. We did a quick grocery shopping trip for cake and icing...and when I say quick, I mean I stood in front of world's tiniest cake mix and icing section and took 15 minutes to decide what exactly I wanted to buy.

After the grocery, we met up with my mom, sister, and nephew for a trip to the zoo. My parents get us zoo passes for Christmas, so we love to take quick trips when we can fit them in. One of my daughters was not in the social mood (not naming names), so we didn't stay too long at the zoo.

We headed home and both my girls took long long naps... which never happens on my watch. I was able to work on some cupcakes and chores while they slept. 

When they woke up, they (of course) had to taste-test the cupcakes. I was a little distracted icing the other cupcakes and suddenly I look up to realize a cupcake bomb went off covering my entire kitchen floor. Cora makes the comment that they were 'washing their hands with frosting'... So needless to say, the cupcake taste test was followed by sink baths and naps.

Friday evening, we had a birthday dinner for my brother and Ida. My brother chose 'Thanksgiving dinner' as the menu and we all enjoyed some turkey (chicken according to Cora), stuffing, corn pudding, green beans, and mashed potatoes. It really did feel like a mini Thanksgiving dinner as we stayed at the table chatting and laughing.

The adults had pumpkin pie, while the children chowed down on Ida's smash cake. Ida wasn't really interested in the cake until we gave her a fork. She had some tastes, but also really wanted to share and make sure that her cousin and sister got some cake as well.  Cora encouraged the kids to try and smash the cake and was most excited that she was "eating cake standing up!"

Saturday I woke up around 4 in the morning.  I couldn't get back to sleep, so I just went ahead and started my day. I took a nice relaxing bath, baked a cake, and finished all the chores before the kids woke up. Ben made us all breakfast then I got the girls ready for a trip to the SAMple store.... our favorite outing.

Around lunch, we headed to my Aunt and Uncle's house to celebrate all of the August and September birthdays. Ida was pretty mellow the whole party (exhausted from all the sugar from the day before) and nearly started crying when we did all of the singing. She loved her new toys... especially this little puppy. She fell asleep at the end of the party.

It was a great couple of days celebrating our sweet Ida's first birthday. I loved reflecting on her birth story and sharing with Cora our past birthday parties and my favorite birthday growing up. My family also all enjoyed sleeping in (I woke up early to mow the lawn) and having a lazy day Sunday.