Polka dots and cupcakes galore, a big pile of gifts and plenty of LOVE to stretch around the moon....Hallie's first birthday party was one we will never forget! I haven't been able to contain my excitment about the party and I'm sure I've mentioned it several times before...I've been planning for months. As most of my family and friends know, I love parties. No wait. I don't just love them. I live for them. Literally. When I don't have something planned then I try to come up with something to plan. Planorexia: it's not a problem, but instead a blessing. The big question: where do I start? With a theme of course. :) Cupcakes seemed like the perfect theme for our girl. Simply put, she loves to eat. Next step: invitations. I was thrilled to order from tinyprints.com so we got to work taking pictures for the invites. They turned out great!
I've been doing most of my party supply shopping online since my selections are slim to none out here. I almost had a nervous breakdown one night when my Party Galaxy withdrawals set in. Supplies have been arriving little by little and her birthday outfits have been piling up. One from Nanny, one from cousins Ashley and Marion from Jersey and her birthday tutu from where else but Etsy. Our dining room table has been unrecognizable for several weeks now. It was hard to see eachother as we ate dinner because of all the boxes and bags. A couple of weeks ago I thought it was high time to do some inventory and see what exactly I had purchased and what else we needed. I guess need isn't the word I should use...more like think I need. Hallie helped me sort through the boxes and gave me some input....
"Mom, I'm not sure how to break this to you but....you are nuts!"
"I'd say that's plenty."
Emmi even pitched in.....
"I'm not budging until you give me a treat."
As her birthday weekend approached presents started to trickle in by mail and from a couple of my patients who have met Hal. The excitement level was a little low for having such pretty packages in front of her, but with a little encouragement I helped her get excited about opening her presents......
Eating her bday gift card from Geoffrey (Babies'R'us)
"To Miss Hallie Grace Fanning"
Opening her treats from Auntie Kyser
I only worked half of the day Friday so that my girl and I could run some party errands before the rodeo that night. Hallie requested that we go pick up her cake first. Giddy feelings welled up inside me as we pulled up to get the cake. I think I have an obsession with ordering cakes from The Cake Lady. It's always so much fun to see what she has created! She had a magical piece of work waiting inside for us. The most beautiful giant cupcake I could have imagined. We chatted for awhile while Hallie made several lunges from my arms toward the cake as she stared in awe at it. Beverly helped me carry everything out to the car and then surprised us by telling Hallie that her cake was a birthday present and we didn't owe her a thing. I think I almost cried...ok, I actually did. Beverly is such a blessing to us. She has made us feel so welcome in town since we moved here....that's probably why I keep finding a reason to order a cake!
We checked one thing off our list and we were on to the next. We made our way to the back of The Bloom for some candy shopping. Hallie was again in awe looking at all of the jars and colors. The candy selection was all her doings and I let her have free reign to pick out what she wanted for her "candy bar."
"Ok, try and keep up. I've got a lot of candy to get"
"I am in candy heaven"
"I'm gonna need this one and some of this one...."
"Ok, I'm ready to check out now."
After she had done her job it was evident that she needed a nap. All of these decisons had worn her out. Riley met us at the house to take the babe while continued marking things off my list. Shopping for party food. I swear I've never spent so much time at once in Walmart...and I never want to again. :) Two hours and an entire carload later it was almost time for the rodeo. Party mode was put on hold Friday night but kicked back into full swing Saturday afternoon. I lured Bailey, Spencer and Dara to Woodward with the promise of some Hallie time, going to the lake and dinner. Two out of three ain't bad.....we never did get to the whole lake part because let's just say that the day didn't go quite like I'd planned. Ya see, I had big plans to make some beautiful cupcakes and magical cake pops. SEE...this is what they would have looked like had our time in the kitchen that afternoon not been a total disaster.....
What could have been....
I don't want to get ahead of myself though. Aunt B, Dara and Spencer showed up around 2:30 and we got started right away. Mission: make 100 cupcakes, prepare party food and make 48 cake pops. Easier said that done. Hallie helped as Spencer and Riley put together her birthday present. She wasn't supposed to see it til the day of her party but we made an exception. We tried to keep her distracted with sorting candy.....
But of course all she wanted to do was eat it.....
"Don't mind if I do."
"I thought this would taste better"
We couldn't stall any longer. She found her surprise and hopped right in. Please notice the Marine sticker on the front of the car courtesy of Riley. I have no idea how this came about but their is supposed to be a pretty princess sticker on the front. Now she's the toughest one-year-old in a pink car around these parts....
"Nice touch daddy"
Across the living room was a nice big box that her car came in. She discovered the never-ending fun of a giant box. Instead of trying to crawl in she just sat atop it and smashed it.....
We had finished five batches of cupcakes and made a ginormous mess so much so that your couldn't see one inch of counter space, we had a few errands to run. Aunt B, Spencer, Dara, Hallie and I ran out for some more candy and cupcake supplies. We stopped by the hotel to check in and say hi to Nanny. The clock was ticking away and we still had so many cupcakes to bake and food to prepare. We were rejuvinated and ready to get back to work in the kitchen when I spotted something that gave me a small yet legitimate heart attack.....
If ya can't stand the heat.....
Needless to say I was in total mommy panic mode. My two helpers did exactly what they were there to do...make me laugh. It didn't work at that moment but they tried and helped me begin surgical repair of the cake. We carefully picked up each side (because by this time the other side was fallen off too) and placed it back on. Now the hard part....make it look pretty and shiny and perfect like it had looked. I eventually started laughing after looking at the sad cake while we tried to rescusitate it back to life. Aunt B scolded Dara for putting the fondant dots back on without wiping the frosting off while I grabbed the other batch of cupcakes out of the oven. Turns out I never need to be in a kitchen EVER AGAIN. I am unfit to operate an oven. Or supervise an oven I guess I should say. I pulled out three batches of burnt chocolate flavored cupcakes. Awesome. The girls couldn't help but laugh again and at that point I was saying things like "let's just go to the store and throw away all of these we've made and get store bought cupcakes" and "I give up!" Aunt B was not happy with that idea because she'd just finished beautifully decorating some of the cupcakes. We started doing some taste testing to find that even more had been cooked too long. Great. This is great news. I looked up at the clock and it was 6:30. Seriously? We had planned to be at the lake or the rodeo by this point. We were nowhere close to done. Dara mentioned at that moment "hey, are we going to finish the cake pops?" Oh, the cake pops....those lovely treats that were going to take three hours to complete. See why I'm not fit to be in the kitchen? I'm not even kidding. I turned around to open the freezer to pull out the balls of cake and frosting so we could get them ready to dip in the chocolate. They never made it to the counter but instead ended up on the floor. The pan fell out of the freezer when I opened the door and they became dog hair and dirt pops at that point. No saving those suckers. All three of us collapsed on the floor or a chair and nearly died laughing. This really had turned out like a scene from a movie where someone is having a cooking disaster where everything is burning or boiling over and guests are on their way. The person is usually covered in spaghetti sauce and rips their apron off in defeat. We sadly threw away the ruined cupcakes and cake balls in the trash and retired for some dinner. No more kitchen duty for these girls.
Nanny gave us a call about that time telling us that the people who had the event room reserved for Saturday night had been a no-show so we loaded up most of the party stuff and lugged it all into the hotel. Just a sidenote: we decided to have her party at the Hampton here in town because we obviously don't have a place to accomodate many people at the moment. :) I was kinda (really) bummed about not having a home by this point to have her party there but it ended up working out for the best in the end. We spent the evening decorating and having fun all the while I was apologizing for making everyone be my slaves for the day. They reallly did help an extraordinary amount and I couldn't have done everything without them. Love my family!!! Aunt B was in charge of setting up the candy bar which she did when she wasn't doing this.....
All in all, we had a blast preparing for Hallie Day despite the treat debacle. Hallie Grace woke up Sunday morning bright and early and in a chipper mood. She must've known what was happening that day. She helped me load up her pink car and the treats that did make the cut and we made one last trip to the party room before church......
Pure excitement
Little miss was dressed, ready and waiting to get this show on the road....
"Let's get this party started!"
That morning was super busy as we welcomed a lot of family to church with us to celebrate Hallie's christening and then we all ate lunch at Nanny and Papa's house. I rounded up my helpers one last time and everyone got to work putting the finishing touches on the party room while the birthday girl napped and got her beauty sleep for a big afternoon.....
I hope you guys know Hallie only pays in hugs and kisses!
Me being on a roll with doing bonehead things I left the cake at home and Lisa and Garrett came to the rescue and went to retrieve it from our house while I got the food set up. Before I knew it it was PARTY TIME! Lisa and I took Hallie to her dressing room and put her first outfit on. I just have to add that not only did Riley think I went way beyond overboard, but he also thought that I was acting like a ridiculous parent on the MTV show "My Super Sweet 16." He joked with me for weeks about her outfit changes and asked what rapper I was going to ask to come perform. I told him if we were going to go that route then she needed a Range Rover to pull up in out front for her grand entrance. There were no elephants for her grand entrance, no rappers and no lavish decorations like that awful show.....but there was one precious, sweet, tiny one-year-old angel who walked through the door to lots of family and friends waiting to see her......
"I'm nervous Aunt Lisa"
Her shyness soon vanished after she saw all of the people....and BALLOONS!
"I'M HERE EVERYBODY!"
"Awww, you guys shouldn't have..."
Her little personality just sparkled so much and as I watched her waddle around in her tutu I couldn't believe how much she has grown up....
Sweet baby girl
We tried to keep the birthday girl's whereabouts a secret but the paparazzi found her despite our efforts....
"OVER HERE HALLIE! LOOK THIS WAY!"
The birthday girl made her way over to greet Ms. Linda...and to steal the balloons from her table....
The cake was still recovering from surgery the night before but made a good showing and put on a brave face for the crowd.....
Trust me, I have eaten enough of it to tell you it's delcicious
Hallie made her way partly around the room greeting her friends and family. She couldn't go anywhere without her trusty sidekick the bowling pin though....
She was parched after a few minutes of waddling and stopped to try out her punch....
"I'm gonna need some more of that right there"
Nanny and Papa caught our attention and led us to the back of the room for Hal's first surprise of the day. I was so surprised when I laid eyes on the baby seat on the back of a bike. I made the comment to Nanny "you are going to have to take bike lessons before you guys go for a ride." Lol. Turns out it was a gift for me too. It was my new bike...an anniversary gift! I was so excited and surprised! What a perfect gift for Hal and I....we love a good adventure together. Nanny had been dropping hints all week about Hallie needing a helmet to use their gift. She also dropped off a horn on Saturday afternoon. I think anybody else would have been able to catch on but I'm not the smartest crayon in the box. Hallie jumped right up to test out her seat. It cracked me up watching her sit there with her tutu sticking out every which way.....
Great friends and Sunday school classmates :)
"Say cheese"
Riley shoved her and her tutu in the pink car and took a ride around the room to finish greeting everyone....
"Let me get these out of the way real quick"
"BEEP BEEP!"
This table was up to no good I'm certain of it
It was time to start opening all of the gifts that had piled up once everyone had arrived. Hallie helped out quite a bit and watched as I pulled out each of her goodies....
"You are going too fast mom. I wanna open this one"
"Aunt Lisa must know me well"
"Hang on a minute, let me finish my cookie"
Her green rain boots from cousin Presley and Aunt Lana were a hit!
This was the extent of her "help"
Each stuffed animal gets a Hallie hug
"Now that is one cool puppy"
It was perfect timing when she opened her Florida State sippy cup from cousin Garrett because she was in need of a big drink of water....
"This hit the spot"
She was reenergized and dove back in (literally) for more present opening.....
"Put this in my piggy bank for me, would ya?"
"I thought I saw one more gift back here...."
She was surrounded by fun toys, stuffed animals, adorable clothes, gift cards and some cash for her college savings. I hear that Gman has a swing set waiting for her in his backyard also. She was one happy girl!
Outfit #2 was on and her crown was in place. It was CAKE TIME!!!
Now as we all know, this girl can eat. Anything edible (and non-edible) that is placed in front of her is devoured in seconds. No crumb left behind. That is why I've been picturing a hilarious mess of a cake and a sweet baby face covered in frosting. That was sooooo not the case when we carefully placed the cake on her high chair.....
"This is delightful frosting"
My crazy girl turned into this dainty little princess within seconds. It must've been the crown. :)
"Oh no, I must clean my hand"
We had had enough of the clean side of Hallie so Dara gave her a little (big) hand and shoved it in her face....
Now that is how to eat birthday cake
She was intimidated by the big cake so I thought I'd offer her some mini-cupcakes. She liked squishing them but didn't want to eat them persay. After checking her nose for frosting she needed to wash her cake down...
You guessed it...time for outfit #3! Don't make fun, it was necessary. And oh so cute!!! ;) She had much more socializing to do....
She held hands and posed for a pic with her cousin Peyton.....
She tried out her pink pony from Aunt Katie and Uncle Luke.....
She entertained Papa, Nanny, Aunt Ky and Aunt Katie as she chased down balloons....
Two hours had flown by and you could see the tiredness in her eyes....
"What's that you say? The party is almost over? But I haven't got to hang out with Gman yet!"
It's a one-year-old's party so what better time than to act like a kid? So Riley strapped Hallie in, Nanny plopped her helmet on and we took off on our new bike....
So happy about her helmet
I snuck back to the back of the room to snap a pic of Dad's side of the family....
I had set up a game of Twister and bowling in the back of the room and they had both been forgotten until Aunt B and Spencer decided to try them out a bit. I still wish we would have remembered to play Twister, dang it!
Cousin Bowen didn't mind the color of the car and embraced his masculinity and took her car for a spin....
Everyone pitched in to help with cleanup. What on earth would I do without my family? I'm telling you, they are a special group! We couldn't just clean though because the birthday girl was still in party mode.....
"Aunt Lisa, I'm not ready for this to end"
Trying out her crazy straws with Auntie Heather
"Uncle Spencer, I didn't say it was time to clean these up yet..."
Hallie and I spotted Aunt Lana gathering up the balloons and got a great idea.....
Hallie grabbed them and headed outside....
We were most certainly livin' on Hallie time this weekend. Full of spunk and vibrance, blessed beyond measure and a gift from God....that's our Hallie Grace.
Happy Birthday sweet baby girl! We love you!
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