Taylor's 1st Birthday Party!

On Sunday, October 24th, we hosted Taylor's 1st birthday party at our house.  It was so much fun to celebrate such a special day with our family and friends.  Taylor is such a loved little girl!

Mommy spent lots of time on the decorations and even handmade a few of them including the banner and the Elephant picture display.

The poor birthday girl spiked a fever on Saturday night - her first one :(  She was hovering at about 100.4 all through Sat night and into Sunday, even on Tylenol.  We tried keeping her on Tylenol every 4 hours, giving her lots to drink and wet wash cloths.  She was still a crank monster most of the morning.  As soon as people started to arrive she was acting better - still not her smiley old self - but better. 

Here she is in her adorable custom birthday girl party outfit!  The onesie was custom made by Sheila and the tutu was found at Costco :)  There was a hat and a headband too, but Taylor wouldn't have any of it!

The party went great!  It started at 1:00.  Party goers included:

Nana & Grandpa Ford

Uncle Doug

Grandma & Grandpa Stephens

Uncle Garrett

Great Grandma Ford

Aunt Sherry, Uncle Ian and Owen
"Uncle" Kevin and "Aunt" Meghan
Sheila Richardson and her girls Mikayla and Julia

Our taco bar was a hit!  We had tacos and all the fixins' plus chips and salsa, guacomole and 7 layer dip.  To round out the Mexican theme, we had Coronas :)

After lunch it was present time!  Uncle Garrett and Uncle Trent got Taylor the "If you give a mouse a cookie" book and "If you take a mouse to the movies" along with the stuffed version of the mouse.  Also, 2 Dr. Seuss movies including Daddy's favorite - The Cat in the Hat.  Grandma & Grandpa Stephens and Great Aunt Lori got her a Radio Flyer wagon.  Great Aunt Lesley gave her a pink corn popper and a nice orange kiss in the card (eek!).  Great Grandma Ford got her a Fisher Price shopping cart complete with ketchup, mustard, etc.  Uncle Ian, Aunt Sherry and Owen got Taylor Dusty the Vacuum, Mickey board book set and the cutest Tea Party set!  Uncle Kevin and Aunt Meg got her an adorable stuffed elephant and a bunch of ridiculously cute outfits!  Sheila & girls supplied the birthday girls outfit as well as a new flower headband and a super cute flower hat!  Mommy & Daddy got her an outrageously expensive, but super cute Pottery Barn Kids chair.  Last but not least, Nana and Grandpa made the cutest toy box for Taylor.  She is going to love it!  Inside was a Sesame Street remote from Uncle Doug and a cute purse from Nana and Grandpa.  She was certainly spoiled!!!  She was so overwhelmed and didn't know what to play with first!

Once the gifts were open, it was cake time!  I stripped her down to just her onesie because I definitely didn't want to get her birthday outfit cake-y!  She was almost to her "i've had it" point, but we had to do the smash cake!  The cake looked delicious!  It was from Just Baked in Ann Arbor and was really cute!  She was really hesitant at first, but started to dig in a little bit after a few minutes.  I think she was just not feeling good at all, her Tylenol was beginning to wear off, and she didn't want much to do with it.  She ended up digging in a little bit and getting frosting everywhere!  She liked the black fondant circles best.  The hot pink frosting looked like lipstick - so cute!  She did display the new trick she learned on Saturday.  When I ask her "How many are you going to be" she holds up her finger in a 1!  Genius :)  She only lasted about 5 minutes with the cake, but I was able to get some pretty cute shots of her. 

After cake the party was winding down.  It was time for Daddy to go get Sam from Camp Bow Wow doggy day care (which was awesome!) and time for Mommy to clean up the messy house!  Zack and I were super pooped by the time the day was over.  We opened all of Taylor's new toys and had fun playing together.  Taylor was so excited for all of her new stuff :)

I can't believe her first birthday party is over...time is going too fast.  I want to bottle her up and keep her a little baby!  I am probably going to be an emotional wreck on Thursday.  At least right now I can say she's still 11 months old...hahaha!

What a great day!  Love my baby girl :)