So, now that Abi is just shy of 15 months old, I am getting around to sharing some pics from her first birthday party. She had a special day, although it almost did not happen. Yes, we almost cancelled her party. The rain chance had increased a lot the day before and we had planned on having her party outside. This was our first first birthday party that wasn’t in our big Georgia house. I missed that house a lot when we were fretting about the rain. You see, I am not real big on having a bunch of people in our house, but alas, the heat brought everyone in our hose anyway. We did have a great little party for Abi, but I am thinking we are done with big parties at our house for a while. At least where we live right now…
We did a lot of paper decorations and we thought we could make the garage work for her party. We did make it work but the heat was awful and the flies found the cupcakes after a few minutes…
Ella was he first one to try the “You Are My Sunshine” head cut out. She was my little helper that morning. She was outside with my giving me tape. I love her.
Of course I forgot to take pictures of what was inside of the goody bags, but it was really adorable. We had sunflower seeds, bubbles, a nice bath bomb that my step mom made, laffy taffy, and some other goodies.
We made this cute balloon wall with a needle and thread. It was the first time I had done this before and it was so easy! I love how it turned out!
We made a time capsule for Abi to open with she is 18. It has a letter from Matt and I to her in it and some of her baby items. We planned on people writing her words of wisdom, but in the hustle of the party that got lost somehow. Oh well! Mom and dad wrote her some words of wisdom and that is probably the most impactful thing she could read.
I worked hard on this as I did for the big girls when they had their first birthday parties. We love looking back and seeing all of the special memories from the first year. It really flies by!
Matt made this amazing sunshine wall and aunt Arica made the beautiful sun. I love how we all pull together and contribute! I really could not pull stuff like this off without their help!
I made a few “1” collages with pictures from her first year. Sweet girl, please slow down and stay little!
We had coloring for some of the big kids. All of her guests were big kids.
This is what the garage looked like when Matt finished hanging the table cloths. It helped hide all of our junk! 
Arica and I hung these images as decoration. Just some string and tiny clothes pins. 
We woke Abi up right before her party. She was a little startled at first but she loves people so she warmed up quite quickly. And it was literally h-o-t out there so she had to warm up!!!
Note the fly on the right…yeah. Once they started coming, they didn’t stop, so we had to move the food inside.
Silly Maverick. He is such a delight. He was very excited for the party. We all love little Abi baby.
Courtney! She was really excited about some of the food and she got some juice, a real treat. I am so glad Maverick and Courtney were with us to celebrate. 
Kat was digging all the fruit. Yummmmm
We had one game, write your name on a sun beam and then pin it on the sun. They had fun writing their names. Look at Ella’s beautiful dress. She is such a cutie!
See all the names?? Fun!!
Time for cake!!
She was thrilled when everyone was singing. She LOVED it.
I thought it was so fun how all of the big kids gathered to watch Abi. They all wanted to see what she would do with her cake.
Annnnd she was not interested. She was a little frightened. lol
It took a while but she started to consider the idea that this might not be too scary.
Yummmmmmyyyyyyyy!!!
Ok, mom, you were right. It is good!!!
Not the greatest picture of me, but I was frazzled and worn out from the day. It is the only picture of the two of us from the whole party!
Cake!!!!!!!! I’m telling you girl, it’s something you will learn to love!
Matt really does not enjoy messes, or messy kids lol. I am usually the one cleaning them up after dinner and all that. I had to document this because she actually wasn’t that messy and he ended up being the one to clean her up. The big girls both needed a bath after their first taste of cake. They got so messy, no wipe down would suffice. Abi wasn’t all that messy!!
We had a great first birthday party for Abi baby, even though it was miserably hot. The flies made me mad but it could have been worse. Abi was celebrated wonderfully and I hope she can enjoy these memories some day as much as I always will. My darling Abi, you are growing up so fast, but you will always be my little girl. You are our sunshine. Filling our lives with such joy and your smile lights up any cloudy day (or mood).
