Breakfast at Clare's

Clare is 1!!! For my sweet little lady's first birthday, I decided to go with a Breakfast at Tiffany's theme.  I saw the idea when a very good friend used it for her daughter's first birthday party back in February and I immediately fell in love with the idea.  I tried looking at other themes but I kept coming back to really wanting to do Breakfast at Clare's so I made sure that Jess didn't care (she was awesome and even sent a few things to use as well as details on everything she did!) and then I got to planning.

Clare showing her silly smile :)

I knew that I wanted to have a dessert table with some sort of focal point behind it but I didn't want to totally copy exactly what Jess had done so I started looking at making paper flowers.  I ended up going with more of a starburst design which really just meant hours of folding scrapbook paper into fans and then taping them together.  I was pretty happy with how it turned out! The cakes were another story.  I baked two cakes, 24 cupcakes, and made cake balls as well as dipping oreos in white chocolate.  Everything looked pretty and was pretty much as I expected but I made the mistake of putting the cupcakes out the night before because I forgot how much more dry it is here than in Oklahoma and California so they were pretty dry.  Sorry to anyone who had one!

Dessert Table

I decided to have brunch to go with the theme so we put out croissants with meat and cheese, doughnuts, fruit, a sausage and egg casserole, mini muffins and mini cinnamon rolls.  I also put out a little mimosa bar.  Since I made most of the desserts myself (with help from my mom), I decided not to stress myself out over the food so most of it was from Costco.  My very awesome Aunt Bethany let me borrow a bunch of serving dishes from her that really made the setup look nice :)

I made two different Happy Birthday banners and then I covered some boxes in Tiffany blue wrapping paper and ribbon to work as centerpieces and extra decor.  I also set up some pictures from Clare's photo shoot with Jessie with some of the quotes from Audrey Hepburn that Jess had sent me.  The final touch was a picture banner of Clare's monthly photos from her first year.

Clare refused to take her nap the morning of the party (I think she knew something exciting was coming), so she was a bit tired but she was pretty happy.  She loves people watching and there were plenty of friends and family for her to watch and play with!  I didn't really plan activities since Clare is too little to do anything structured.  We had everyone sing "Happy Birthday" to her which she seemed to enjoy and then we gave her a cupcake to smash in to.  She was pretty dainty with the cupcake and didn't make too much of a mess.  I bought her a cupcake from Nothing Bundt Cakes on her actual birthday a few days later and she did a much better job of making a mess with that one :)

Clare got spoiled with a ton of presents and she seemed to enjoy opening them!  Grayson and our cute neighbor Levi also helped her because she kept getting distracted by the toys she opened.  She got some really great presents and we are grateful for all of them!

The kiddos had a lot of fun playing with the new toys, especially with some help from Uncle Joel!

We ended up having a great time with all of the friends and family who came out to celebrate Clare with us!  We had a great turnout and I was so glad that Clare had both sets of grandparents here!

A big thank you to everyone who helped make Clare's 1st birthday a lot of fun!  She had so much fun that she literally passed out in my arms as we said goodbye to our last guests.  That is what I call a successful party :)

Clare is One!!!

My sweet, happy, smart little Clare is officially one year old today!  I can't believe how fast time flies or how much has changed for us over the last year!  We welcomed our sweet girl in to the world in Enid, Oklahoma and now we have moved half way across the country to Arizona.  She started out at 7 lbs 9 ozs and now she is weighing in at 21 lbs 1 oz.  She was such a sweet cuddly infant and now she is my sweet cuddly 1 year old :)

Clare has really started to develop a fun personality.  She is constantly smiling or laughing and she loves to follow her brother everywhere.  If she is a little grumpy I just have to take her near Grayson and magically she cheers right up.  I have truly loved watching him go from basically ignoring her when she was tiny (and he was still pretty little himself) to saying "I love you Clare Bear" now.

Clare loves to empty bins, drawers and cupboards which can be a touch frustrating but she does it with such glee that I can't really ever get mad.  She likes to clap and "dance" and she really loves to bounce on our little trampoline.  Clare loves books, especially if they have flaps for her to lift.  Her current favorite is "Where is Baby's Bellybutton".

This past month was a fairly busy one for us with the highlights being a trip to LA, my and Julian's 7th wedding anniversary, my 30th birthday, a trip to the pumpkin patch, a visit from my parents, and Clare's 1st birthday party.
The kids and I drove out to LA with my friend Jessie to see my aunt and uncle and help out (I use that term loosely as he is 16 and very self sufficient, he just needed a driver for a few things) with my cousin while they went to Chicago.  Their house is extremely relaxing and we had a nice time.  The kids especially loved their dog Biscuit and exploring outside in temperatures that were bearable.  I really appreciated Jessie making the trip with us and it was the perfect opportunity to get Clare's one year old pictures done!  My Aunt Clare has a gorgeous yard that is filled with good spots to take pictures and I was really happy with what Jessie was able to get of Clare!  Grayson was less cooperative but she still got a few good ones of him too :)  I am looking forward to a lot more pictures by Jessie now that we are back in Phoenix!  I'm going to do a separate post with the pictures that Jessie took.

While I was in LA, Julian and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary.  I was really sad that I wasn't with him (since he just started a new job he couldn't take any time off yet) but we just celebrated a week later when I was back in town.  I am so grateful to have such an incredible partner by my side for life.  He is the perfect husband for me and the best dad that I could have hoped for to our children!  Clare and Grayson both adore him and they absolutely love it when he gets home!  I can't imagine how things would be without him and the wonderful life that we have created together!

A week after our anniversary, I had my 30th birthday.  When I was younger, I always thought of 30 as the end of the "fun" part of life and the start of the more serious and boring years.  I wasn't dreading turning 30 but I also wasn't too excited for it.  I have to say though that life at 30 is much better than I ever could have hoped for and I still feel like I am enjoying the fun years!  My priorities have certainly shifted but it hasn't taken any of the fun or joy out of my life so I can't complain!  I just wanted a nice quiet birthday spent with my little family and that was what I got.  Julian brought flowers, chocolate and a card and he had the kids draw a cute card for me and we got Wing Stop for dinner which was pretty much my ideal day :)  My sweet kiddos have changed what birthdays are but they also make them a lot of fun.  Julian and I went to dinner and a concert the next night and left the kids with their grandparents which was also a lot of fun!

We decided to take the kids to a pumpkin patch out here and I wasn't really sure if it would be fun or not since it was 100 degrees out (welcome to fall in Arizona).  The kids ended up having a great time and they had a lot of fun activities for the kids to do!  I asked Grayson if he wanted a big pumpkin or a little pumpkin and he said "a small punkin mommy!" so we picked a nice small pumpkin.  We only lasted two hours but it was a lot of fun!

The rest of the month before Clare turned one was spent with a visit from my parents and planning for and throwing Clare's first birthday party.  We had so much fun with my parents here and I am so excited to see them (mostly my dad since my mom came out to Oklahoma quite a bit anyway) more now that we are in Phoenix.  Clare and Grayson were both so excited to have them here and they were a huge help to me as I tried to get everything done for Clare's first party.  My kids are so lucky to have such awesome grandparents!  The party itself will be a separate blog post since I have so many pictures that I want to add.

Clare's first year has been such a blast and I am so incredibly grateful to have such a fun, sweet, curious, happy little girl in our family!  I am so glad that God decided that we needed her earlier than I thought we did.  She came in the perfect timing!
At one year old Clare:
-weighs 21 lbs 1 oz which puts her in the 50th percentile.
-is 30 1/2 inches tall which puts her in the 89th percentile for height.  She is a fairly tall slim little thing though she still has cute little baby belly :)
-takes a few steps at a time but seems very nervous about walking and she seems to really just like crawling since she can get places so much faster that way.
-stands for up to a minute at a time though she mostly does it when she is distracted with something in her hands so she doesn't notice that she is standing.
-has 4 teeth.  She has her two vampire teeth on top and then her two bottom middle teeth.  It's pretty cute to see her little teeth when she smiles but hopefully the top middle two come in somewhat soon :)
-follows her brother all over the house.  She is very interested in everything that he does and she really loves playing "with" him.
-loves to sing and dance.  Anytime that music comes on she starts dancing (mostly swaying with some little arm motions).  Her favorite song is "If you're happy and you know it"  she really likes to clap her hands to it.
-loves reading, especially books with flaps that she can lift.
-likes to try to find her bellybutton.
-eats most things.  G let her get ahold of one of his peanuts so we now know that she doesn't have a peanut allergy which is a relief.  Her favorites are berries, pasta, and apples.

Life with this little sweetheart is the best!  We love you Clare Bear!