My girl turned a whole year old!!! How it happened, I do not know.
This has been the hardest and most incredible year of my life. What started with a scary visit to the emergency room and then an even scarier two days in a hospital bed, ended with an early visit from our babe. We didn't know the sex of the baby, had just had our baby shower and didn't even have the nursery set up!! None of that mattered.
What mattered was this tiny fighter that was showing us her strength. They had told us that they didn't know what damage had occurred and that she may not even cry, but boy she showed them. Came into this world screaming and showing us she was going to fight.
When they finally let me hold her, I didn't even see all the wires and tubes, I just saw my sweet sweet girl. Gripping onto to me immediately. That moment was like none in my lifetime. Even know my eyes fill up with tears thinking of how I never imagined a love like that. Ever. But my heart was exploding, with love, for this sweet peanut of mine.
Fast forward to a year later. And we are the parents of a one year old!!! She is sassy, smart, sweet and soaks everything up like a sponge and repeating everything.
Her vocab surprises us every day, walks everywhere, and loves Aiden (the dog). Her favorite activity as of late is to bring us a book so we can read to her. She'll sit in my lap, turn the pages and then bring another when we are done. More often than not we end up reading the same 3 or 4 over and over. (I actually hid a couple that I was reading around 30 times a day!!!) She gives hugs and besos, loves face-timing and her baths. Eats like a champ, I mean everything we put in front of her. Especially prefers veggies and cheese.
Now onto the partay, the theme came from Pinterest. And perfect because I sing twinkle twinkle every single night before bed. It was filled (like it birthdays should be) with all of Zoe's favorites.
We had a music teacher come and do a class, gave away instruments and grab bags filled with her favorites.
Served grilled cheese, pizzas, a cheese plate and fruit salad. But most importantly she had an absolute ball. I wish we could have invited all of our family but with a small town house 10 kids (and parents) had us bursting at the seams. And the party bags had all of her favorite things, and for a treat we included homemade animal crackers and her favorite fruit pouches from Happy Family!
The smash cake was a, no added sugar and butter free cake, made with whole wheat flour yogurt and berries. The frosting was cream cheese, applesauce, vanilla and raspberries. She was verrrry into the frosting. And I made this vanilla cake in a star pan for the rest of the guests. I'll need to work on my rustic frosting technique...
I love this birthday poster from Zoe's Tia Alyssa and I also displayed her monthly pics in the living room! (ps they are still there...)
It was a super special day, hoping to add some links to where I bought things and recipes this weekend, so check back or leave questions on the comments!
xo