The Big ONE

On Saturday we celebrated Karis first year of life. The food was carefully prepared. The table lovingly set. The birthday girl festively dressed. The balloons hung boldly in the corner. This was her birthday party. Karis was turning one! And yet I told Matt that I felt as if this really was more of a party for us, her parents. It felt like our celebration of making it through this first year. It was our time to say "Thank you, Jesus" for loving us so much to give us this beautiful child and giving us the strength and sanity to make it through the newness, uncertainty, and sleeplessness that is infancy. So, yeah, Karis partied. (Crazy little thing knows how to shake it and dance!) And so did the relatives (minus the dancing). But most importantly, we rejoiced!

The birthday girl loved the balloons...they were quite the highlight of the party.


We had a cupcake theme going for her party. Cupcakes seem to be all the rage right now in the culinary/pastry world. I am no less captivated than all the other cupcake enthusiasts out there. A cupcake is, afterall, a single serving of cake without the guilt of cutting into an entire cake for just one slice. That is genius, in my book! Karis' aunt made her cute outfit. I had fun making her "cupcake" invitations with some beautiful, graphic paper. And I even tried my hand at making some actual cupcakes. I made the chocolate sour cream cupcake batter from here and the easy vanilla bean buttercream from here, one of my favorite recipe sources. Both recipes were delicious and worked so well together...I highly recommend them. It was a super fun project to work on, and I was glad they turned out.


On the actual day of her birthday we took her to the park for the first time. What an introduction that was!! She loved the plastic playground and crawled through the giant tubes and slid down the slide on her Dad's lap. The swing, on the other hand, was not love at first introduction. The expression on her face tells just how unsure she was. By the end of the park visit, though, even the swings had won her over.


Last, I thought I'd share a video with you of our family music party on her birthday. Dad is musically inclined and loves to sing and play music for Karis. Karis seems to be taking a natural liking to these "music classes." As you can see at the beginning of the video, Karis plays a mean drumstick....on her head.