First Birthday Party!!!!1

We had Ashley's first birthday party yesterday. Her actual birthday is not until Tuesday, but we wanted to celebrate her birthday early. Plus, it did not hurt that the party was on Easter weekend, so more people could attend. In all, we had 18 people there - which is a great turnout, considering that I have a small family and Bryan's extended family lives out-of-state. Our family tradition of bad weather when hosting special events continued. The night before the party, Michigan got hit with a snowstorm and we got about 6 inches of snow. Proof that any type of weather can occur here!

Anyway, we began the party by serving chips and Mexicali dip, and crackers and spinach dip. Both are family favorites. Then, we served a buffet-style lunch of ham and turkey sandwiches, macaroni salad and fruit salad. Everyone seemed stuffed - even the birthday girl. She ate turkey, turkey and more turkey. She also charmed everyone, as usual. She was flirting with her Uncle Dennis and smiling at everyone like usual.

After lunch, we opened presents. I was afraid that Ashley would be running out of juice because this was around naptime. Sure enough, she did not want anything to do with opening her presents. At Christmas, she would pull the wrapping paper off her gifts, but yesterday, she refused. She got a great haul of presents - lots of clothes, toys and money. It pays to be the first grandchild.

Ashley continued to get fussy, but we did not want to put her down just yet because we wanted the ever important first cake experience. We bought her a two tiered yellow princess cake, then also bought her an individual smash cake that read "Happy 1st Ashley." Unfortunately, we do not have good pictures of the smash cake (someone else was taking the pictures). I am hoping that one of the grandparents has a good picture we can copy. We put the "1" candle in the smash cake and sang "Happy Birthday" to Ashley. I blew out the candle for her and placed the cake in front of Ashley. At first, she refused to touch the cake. So, I put some icing on my fingers and let her taste it. Well - that was all it took. She LOVED the icing and dug right in! By the time she was done, there was frosting in her hair, on her face, on her arms, on her chest and on her legs. Thank goodness we stripped her to her diaper. She clearly enjoyed herself!!

Happy Birthday Princess!!! You have come an awful long way in a year. Mommy and Daddy love you so much!