Monday, May 3, 2010

Samantha Turns One!

No more baby formula to buy. All the bottles are packed away. My baby girl Samantha Marjorie is now one year old!!

To celebrate Samantha's big milestone we had a Teddy Bear's Picnic. I got the idea from Gabrielle's recital song. It hit me one day just how cute a first birthday it would make.

A couple of months ago I drew this picture for Samantha's birthday invitation:

It did not scan as well as I had hoped but I still wanted to go with this idea for her invitations so when I found the Teddy Bear Picnic digital scrapbook kit by Tootlebugz Designs I was thrilled! I purchased the kit and created the invitation below:


I thought it turned out really cute and I am planning on using the kit for thank you cards as well.

Decorating for this theme was easy - red and white check with some daisies (my favorite flower) thrown in to add some girly-ness. We definitely wanted to do a picnic lunch for everyone and invited all teddy bears to the party as well.

From May 2010

The food table - before the actual food was put on the table obviously.

From May 2010

Table outside on the deck for drinks & goody bags.

From May 2010

I made this Happy Birthday banner out of felt for Gabrielle's 2nd birthday.

From May 2010

From May 2010

I borrowed my Mom's Cricut to make a paper daisy bouquet as well as to decorate the goody bags. I never would have thought I would want a Cricut or something similar and now I'm dying to have one of my own!!


Samantha woke up in such a good mood on Saturday. She surprised me how happy and smiley she was being even when she was surrounded by so many people. She even showed everyone how she can take steps on her own now.

From May 2010

The birthday girl dressed in her birthday clothes for the party. She also had a birthday girl hat and bib.

While everyone played outside for a little bit we finished preparing lunch. We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and had macaroni & cheese, baked beans and chips for lunch with sweet tea, lemonade and Caprisuns for the kids.

From My Little Sunbeams

Some of our family and friends playing before lunch.

From May 2010

The Teddy Bears had their very own picnic area.

From May 2010

Uncle Nick & Samantha playing with her birthday balloons. If only this picture could capture the shrieks of laughter!

From My Little Sunbeams

More of our friends and family enjoying lunch. I think Avery, Samantha's friend who is just two days older, pictured in the lower right corner enjoyed the lunch more than anyone. I wish I had a photo of her little face and arms once she had finished eating - baked beans and strawberries everywhere! So cute!

After lunch was cake and icecream of course! Samantha had her own little teddy bear cake while we had cupcakes with daisies for our friends and family.

From May 2010

"Bring on the cake already!!"

From May 2010

Samantha's cake

From May 2010

Cupcakes

From May 2010

"Make a wish!!"

Samantha acted as if she was a bit intimidated with the bear looking at her. Once we turned the cake around she dug right in and boy, did she enjoy her cake!!

From My Little Sunbeams


From May 2010

I think she was proud of her mess.

From My Little Sunbeams

It was a joint effort by myself and Aunt Tammy to get her cleaned up enough to open presents.

Samantha received so many wonderful things - clothes, puzzles, books, baby dolls and so much more. Samantha loved all the gifts but Gabrielle truly was the one who enjoyed ripping into the paper! Gabrielle shrieked with each gift "look what she got!!" It was fun to watch.

From May 2010


The weather was warm - really warm - and I of course had lunch running later than planned but I hope everyone had as good a time as we did. It was a blast! We all took naps later that afternoon.

After dinner we finally gave Samantha her gift from us. We meant to give it to her early and have it set up for the kids to play with but in the busyness of getting ready for the party the gift never crossed our minds until the party was over. We gave her a water table. Both girls loved, loved, loved it and it will get played with quite a bit this summer.

From My Little Sunbeams


I would say it was a pretty successful first birthday!

I know I am so far behind on the blog. There are a couple of events I really want to get posted from the last couple of weeks so the next few posts will probably be "catch up" stuff rather than actual new stuff.

1 comment:

Danielle Bridgers Banks said...

I can't believe our girls are one!! It looks like Samantha enjoyed her birthday party!!!