Sunday, May 30, 2010

Icing on the Cake…or Face

We celebrated Helen Grace’s first birthday with a cupcake-themed family party at our house on Saturday. We dodged a bullet with a forecast of isolated thunderstorms that afternoon- the day turned out to be nice and sunny. It was a tad on the warm side, but we kept plenty of fans and A/C running and stayed pretty cool.

It was such a surreal and beautiful moment for John and me to hold a birthday cake in front of Helen Grace, sing Happy Birthday to her, blow out her candles, and then watch her try out her cake. I tried to take in every moment, every smile, every finger stroke as she tasted the icing…and then smeared it ALL OVER herself! What a wonderful life experience to share with our family and friends! We definitely know our baby is loved!

Another new development to share in a later post but very important to note the timing…our baby girl took a full step on her own on Friday, and as of Saturday, she is WALKING! WOW!

CIMG5154CIMG5174CIMG5182 All ready for my party to start!CIMG5178CIMG5191CIMG5193HG, Sha, Whitney, Haney, Rebecca, Leighton, Adickes, Emilyben- dg grp2 ben- hg with ben   Oh my goodness, my baby is about to experience her first birthday cake…I can’t explain the fireworks of emotions! hanley family with cakehanley- blowing out candles Diving inhanley- cake1 “Hmmm…”hanley- cake2 “Ooooh, I LIKE it!”hanley- cake3Daddy put this crown on her head, and but she just couldn’t stand it…so she had to take it off with her frosting-covered hand…hanley- cake5 hanley- cake6 “I love this cake so much that I just want to KISS it!”hanley- cake7 hanley- cake8 hanley- cake9 hanley- cake10 hanley- cake11 hanley- cake12 Headed straight to the bathtub!hanley- cake13All clean again hanley- HG laughing2hanley- all cleanAll of GG’s great-grandchildren:  Worth, Helen Grace, Grace Ann, Hastings, Hayeshanley- all cousinsRequisite bloomers shothanley- spif and bloomersGiving Geggy some loveCIMG5238 LOVES her new Cozy Coupe from BubbaCIMG5244 CIMG5246 Trying out the moonbounce with DaddyCIMG5252 Cousin William doesn’t quite know what to do with babies- lol! I wish you could see the grip she has on his lip with her right hand!CIMG5265 My first cousins on my mom’s side:  Hanley, Cam, SuzanneCIMG5290A fun end to a fabulous day!CIMG5294

Mama’s Little Helper

We have been working hard to get ready for Helen Grace’s family birthday party on Saturday, and of course, HG is the best little helper, which works nicely since she is permanently attached to my hip. I love my little tag-along!

She’s showing her shoe addiction again.CIMG5133Building up those leg musclesCIMG5135 Her walking is getting stronger by the minute.CIMG5136 Spif was helping HG warm up to the idea of her party hat for Saturday. She wasn’t really digging it.CIMG5137 So Spif had to show her that it was really fun to wear- ha!CIMG5139 She has found the fridge- watch out!CIMG5142

FTM Birthday Picnic

One of Helen Grace’s friends from FTM, Layla, has a birthday about a week after hers, so we had a joint birthday party picnic at Shelby Farms on Wednesday. Thank goodness, the weather cooperated, and we had a great morning of play and laughter with our friends! We are so lucky to have them in our lives!

Birthday girl is ready for the party!CIMG5116 CIMG5118 Caroline and Graham are ready to play!CIMG5119 Helen Grace talked Ms. Ashley into taking her for a stroll.CIMG5121 CIMG5123 The birthday girls!CIMG5124  The hostesses: Lori, Layla, Helen Grace, and mebday girlsgroup pic- cassie grp pic- loriHelen Grace checking out all her goodiesCIMG5128 Can you believe how sweet our friends are?!CIMG5131