a pretty “low key” party for me still means spending all night making stupid crafts i wont use and making food that gets ruined. #ohwell #notperfect

this little girl is the sweetest thing that has happened in the last year.

she is generally a very happy thing, she loves people and playing and dancing and eating and following her brother around

and walking and smiling and screaming and saying dadadadadadada pretty much all day.

i was, naturally, pretty emotional last week as i thought of how much faster it went the second time.

i remember with B feeling like every new phase was exciting and a sign that he was growing and soon we’d be able to talk and play together more because he would have an imagination and say funny things….

and now that i know better a little…. i’m in no rush.

only, time is.

and my sweet little newborn is walking all over the place and already fighting for a personality that has so much fun, and so much stubborn independence thrown in.

i’m sure she gets all of that from her dad. 😉

sap sap sap, anyway,

the party was so much fun. just the right amount of people there so we could really enjoy each other.

i tried to make the food as easy set-up as possible, which was great because we ended up running super late!

i whipped up this watermelon cake for a fun way to eat watermelon…

truth be told it’s kind of a logistical nightmare. a little hard to keep fresh at a picnic unless consumed fast, which it was.

but it looked amazing!

then we had sandwiches, chips, juice… ya know, picnic food!

i snagged those toy ants on amazon for a few bucks and the kids loved em!

i thought it’d be fun to display reese’s month pictures on the table too, so we could see how far she’s come already.

and the cute DIY watermelon piñata was a big hit too. tutorial here

for the cupcakes, i just made strawberry cupcakes and added chocolate chips for seeds and topped with a coconut creme frosting.

they were pretty yumtown, i won’t lie there.

hindsight, i probably should have taken a picture of the inside… you get the idea, right?

the real epic fail was this once cute cake that reese was meant to eat and look perfect and that i could capture in one blow and not have to stage a repeat…

well, i had to hold it and drive to the park because we all had stuff in our cars…

it just took one turn and that cake was in both hands as i drove. swear words almost happened.

just imagine how perfect the petals were on that frosting. just imagine. and imagine the few hours that i spent ensuring that each one was perfect.

ugh. i was mad, but really, who cares?

am i going to have to make another one for some studio shots? sure. but who cares.

she still did her part wonderfully.

so when it got knocked over into the grass after she ate a few bites we just had to laugh… classic.

    thanks to all of our friends and family who made it out!

we really had a great time.

happy birthday sweet reese darling!