Her First Birthday Party

.. with friends!!

I am so excited that I was finally able to have a friend birthday party for Sister!!

Big accomplishment.

I have just been doing family only parties for her because she could barely even handle those. You can take a look back at the last three if you want to catch up-- (Note: I used to name my kids by their ages on this blog, so Sister will be known in these past post by her age.) 2008, 2009, 2010

I had done some friend birthday parties for Brother when he was younger so I was sad when I had to stop doing them because he didn't want them anymore. Sister, I never thought would do well with them. So this year when she started talking about her birthday party back in May, I jumped on the band wagon and kept encouraging her along. I know that she learned about birthday parties at school, and I know that is why she was totally OK with the whole idea, so, I have to thank her teachers for the opportunity of celebrating her birthday with some friends today!

(WARNING: There are only 3 pictures of the friend party. Here's the reasons why: I was busy trying to make sure the party was a success, I forgot to give my camera to someone else to take pictures, and Grandpa Gary was there to take pictures with his camera but, I haven't downloaded them yet. I will post those when I get them.)

She LOVES Scooby Doo, M&M's, horses, chocolate and the color blue. None of those go together but they make for a great party.

Marc took work off to help with the party and he was in charge of the horse rides.

My sister, Jessie, did face painting.

I made blue cupcakes (my mom frosted them).

I also made brownies.

We colored scooby doo and M&M coloring pages that I printed off.

And they just had a good time hanging out.

I was so proud of Sister. She did so well, and was so pleasant. She was so excited to blow out her candles and open her presents.

I was so excited to have her friends for a birthday party! Finally on her 6th birthday.

Wait, did I just say 6?

Oh my word, she is 6?

Can I just stick in the cliche line here, "Where does the time go?"

Oh, and get this, Brother is excited for his friend birthday party this year!!

I am so happy to be able to have these kinds of parties for them. It's so exciting! Wahoo! (I really mean that, I am not being sarcastic at all.)

Oh, and we had a family party for her on Sunday with my family.

Marc took some pictures on his iPod of some of the cute things.

My dad was so excited to give her something to help with her love of M&M's, he even added in some M&M candies for her to put in the dispenser.

I love this. Look at my dad in the background.

She hugged this guy for quite a while.

 They helped grandma Judy turn the homemade ice cream.  Mmmmmmmmmm......

She was very excited for us to sing "Happy Birthday" and blow out her candles.

She also loved the "boy barbie" she got from Grandma Judy. (It's an Aaron Carter doll... my mom got him at a yard sale... someone's been holding onto that one for a while.)