To warm up, I thought I'd start with a blog worthy event that I don't want to forget. Last year (when I was pregnant) we went camping with the Thorsted's and had such a great time we decided to make it an annual event (not the me being pregnant part, but the camping thing). So last month (in August) we had the "Second Annual Marshall/Thorsted Campout." The campouts go as follows (thus far) we camp only one night somewhere less than an hour away, have dinner, s'mores, breakfast, do a hike, and then take down camp and head home to showers and a comfortable bed. It's little wimpy (I know), but we love it, and Olivia did too!
Now for the big event of the year. My little Livie turned 1!!!
And, of course I threw her a party (with the help of my Mother). We threw a cupcake party and had a dinner with chili, corn bread, and a bunch of salads. I can't thank Deb enough for decorating all my cupcakes. It truly couldn't have been a cupcake party without her. Liv got a gigantic cupcake all to herself. Here is the traditional first birthday cake video: Liv cracked me up she was so prim and proper about it. All the other kids at the party were going nuts. They wanted to dig into that giant cupcake. Towards the end they did and started feeding it to Liv. It was so cute. My Mom insisted on her having a cupcake outfit to match the party, and she was pretty cute in it.
Olivia is so fun to watch grow and develop, but it makes me sad to think that my baby is growing up. Derek started suggesting I throw a "Come mourn with us the growth of our child party" and have everyone wear black because I kept complaining about how my baby isn't a baby any more and this first year just went way too fast. Instead of the funeral thing, the nostalgic mother in me put together a chain with a picture from each month of her life. I turned out so cute!
At the end of the night, the birthday girl was changed into her cupcake PJs (also courtesy of Grandma Babi) to open presents.
Liv was so excited for all her new toys. She has totally been loving the wagon Babi and Papou gave her. In fact, she has been so entertained this week with all these new things to play with. Then, I don't know of a better way to end her birthday party than this...That's right folks those were Livie's first steps on her birthday. That girl knows how to end a party! The best part was that the whole family was there to see, and we caught it on video! You can hear us all in the background chanting as we count 12 steps! So, all in all, the party was a success. Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us (we had a full house--there were about 40 Livie fans) and Liv seemed to have a good time (even though Derek claims it was really more of a party for me than her).
