What does a sneeze sound like?

AH-dorable.

Let It Snow

Those who know me know that I love a good party.  Since Willa was born I have not been able to plan any of the big events I usually do, including the Oscar party, my birthday, or any big Family Solutions events.  So I had a lot of time to plan for Willa's birthday, and I wanted it to be perfect.

For the theme I decided to go with "Let it Snow."  I chose this after a client of mine said that her favorite part about having a January birthday was the possibility of snow.  I also have quite a few snowy decorations in my Christmas boxes, and figured all white food wouldn't be too challenging.  With this in mind I started gathering items that would fit the theme as long ago as last summer, grabbing six cups with white starbursts on them from the dollar spot in Target, discounted silver polka dot tissue paper, and pink and white beach balls from Party City.  I was hoping I could put all those things together to make fun favors for the kids.  When Christmas decor started going on sale, I grabbed all the snowflake ornaments I could, a sign that said "Let it Snow" and a little white fox.  All together it wasn't too expensive, and when I added it to our snowy Christmas decor and the paper garlands I made for Lark's Frozen themed birthday party it was quite festive!

A poster I custom ordered from Etsy with all of her special facts

The marquee number I made for Ethan's birthday party, and got to reuse, so pretty!

The favors I made for each kid, complete with a snowman I knit and a marshmallow snowman 

I served all of her favorite foods, like apples, cheese sticks, cheese puffs, cucumbers, and snowflake shaped Ritz crackers.  I used a snowflake cookie cutter for the apple slices, and for the homemade soft pretzels that Jeremy requested.  It was quite the snowy spread!

I wanted to keep the activities simple, so I limited it to the bubble machine her uncle Kenny got her for Christmas, and the beach balls I bought for the favors.  Those things plus her toys were the perfect entertainment for the three other kids that ended up coming.

No matter what the context, Willa loves books the best!

Willa's friend Wilbur, who is only 9 days older than her

We're still working on sharing...

Willa's friend Petra, whose mom, Audrey works with me

Her toy corner has never been so busy!

She ate off of everyone's plates, hilarious!

Again with the books!

She also loves to stick her tongue out, especially when someone sticks it back!

We were all excited to see her reaction to chocolate, since I didn't like it at my birthday but Jeremy loved his.  As it turns out, she was more like her Daddy with this and was all over it!

All. Over. It.

We asked each guest to pose with her in full cake mess, just so she can remember all the people that were there for her on her big day!

We had such a good day, and Willa enjoyed every minute of it.  I was so proud of her, she didn't get cranky at all during the whole thing, making it all the way through gift and card time.

Our little bookworm loved the cards more than the gifts!

How blessed we are to have so many wonderful friends and family to celebrate our little miss.  It was a perfect day I will be excited to share with her someday!

One year state of the Willa address

And just like that we have a one year old!  What a sweet, sunny, brave-hearted wonder she is.  She is walking everywhere, has ten teeth, and is a bit of a picky eater.  Seriously, I think she is going to turn into one big cheese stick later, if she doesn't eat her weight in Apples and Chicken puree first! 

Her favorite game is "clean up," wherein she puts things away into boxes or baskets, regardless if whether they belong or not.  I think the cutest example of this is when she was playing with a refrigerator magnet in the mudroom, and when I told her to put it away, she dropped it in the nearest shoe.  Too cute!

She has a lot of words and signs now.  Her words are mama, up, ball, book, and bubble, and her signs are milk, more, cheese, cookie, want, and daddy.  We are working a lot on getting her to say "daddy" clearly, but so far she prefers to sign and point it.

She loves to see mirrors and pictures of babies, and has perfected her kissing technique by practicing on them.  She can kiss on command now, which is amazingly charming.  She can also tell you what a fishie says, how big she is, and point to her head, ears, nose, toes, and tummy.  Its incredible how brilliant she is, in my completely unbiased opinion!

I can't wait to see how her words start to pick up steam, and to start hearing simple sentences.  I know she'll have some amazing things to say once she can say them!