it went so fast

Her birthday came and went so fast. We had so much fun and I am really glad that I had a big party and made a big deal out of her first birthday. Even though I did not get to spend as much time as I would have liked relaxing in front of the TV watching March Madness, and I know I probably upset some friends making them come to a one-year-old's birthday party during March Madness games the whole weekend was great. Well, except for sick kids, kids not sleeping, cool weather and SNOW the rest of the weekend was wonderful!
But I failed at capturing most of the weekend on camera...damn it. My sister, Aunt Jojo did get some time to do a photo shoot with Chris, Sam and I, in addition to a cake smashing shoot (which according to my sister was a major flop because the icing on the cake was too hard, the cake was too frozen so she couldn't really smash it at all, and she didn't really even like the taste of it!!) so hopefully she will have some good photos to help me remember this weekend.
But here are some that I did get.

The boys hanging out watching basketball.

Early morning playtime for the girls.
Grandpa taking care of the little ones just before the party got started.

This is how people were greeted at the door. So cute! Aunt Jojo made this for Sam.

We had the most amazing decorations for the party. Originally I told my sister that I wanted to stick with the traditional crepe paper and balloons kind of party...she took that idea to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL!

These were the party favors that I made. Little Chinese take-out cartons with chocolate covered pretzels inside.
My dad spent a ton of time wrapping the crepe paper on the railings; it looked so great. My sister took a photo of Sam and blew it up HUGE for us. It looks more amazing than I was even expecting. She also made the bright colorful word plaques that are next to them; they say "skip", "run", "climb" and "jump". So fun. And the balls that were in between then were these crepe paper balls that my sister made and brought up with her.

More bright crepe paper balls and ribbon hanging in the window.

Here is the amazing cake that Chris baked and my sister decorated.

Sam was actually being so shy for a good portion of the party which is so not like her. She was clinging to certain people and of course Andrea who runs the daycare where Sam is during the week was one of the people that she clung to.

Thank you so much to all of the family and friends that took time out of their busy lives to be with us on Sam's big day. It meant a lot to Chris and I.

Sam now has a cold, isn't sleeping through the night and is super fussy. It is going to be a long week with our BIG GIRL!