Happy 1st Birthday Malia-lou!

Well, pictures don't lie! Malia did in fact turn one last Friday and so we threw a party for her which I have been obsessing about for an embarassingly long time. Let's just say I made her tutu back in February :) I can't believe she is one! She is SO much fun. Very silly, demanding, opinionated, quick to laugh, crinkles her nose when she smiles big, bites you if given half a chance, toots at will with no thought for others....we LOVE her!

I had no doubt that she would dive into the cupcake. She never shies away from food. You can nudge her cheek with a bite of something and she doesn't even look to see what it is...she just opens wide and lets you shovel whatever in!

Riley was such a big "helper" with making these cupcakes. The picture is horrible, but the colors are lavender, lime green, and teal. This was a labor of love, similar in intensity and stress to the labor of love I went through to get Malia into the world one year ago :)
Once again, pictures don't do it justice but we had this room decorated so cute. Butterflies on the wall, 30 balloons with curly ribbon hanging down, a big banner, etc. My mom and I had a great time decorating together! Thanks Mom! Poor lady had to work on her birthday. That's right, April 23rd is my mom's bday too but don't EVER say a word about it to her if you happen to see her on her birthday. She might deck you :)
It's a good thing Malia's not self-conscious because I sat her out in the middle of the room for the festivities. We all got to Ooh and Aah over how cute she was while pigging out on pasta salad. While SHE was pigging out on pasta, although the rest of us were pigging out on pasta salad too I guess.

Have you ever stood in front of a room of people and tried to rally them into playing musical chairs, and they all just look at you like they are embarassed to know you, not least of all your own husband? This was my situation at the party. I knew they would have fun, I even let them know there was a prize for the winner...but you should have seen the effort I had to put into getting them all off their hineys and you should have SEEN the daggers I gave Ben for not backing me up on what I knew would be fun! Well, I was right...they guys ended up have fun playing musical chairs while my mom controlled the pause button on the song "Let's Hear it for the Boys". It was so funny! Then the ladies played to the song "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." I am ashamed to say that I let my competetive side come out and later realized how dumb I must have looked trying ferociously to win a game where at the end I would have to award myself my own prize. But I didn't win, my sister in law Amy won and I'm happy for her. Besides, the prize was a bag of candy and she needs it more than I do, trust me.
Here's my mom walking through the crowd, running her fingers through her hair. Yes mom, we know you have beautiful hair :) Just kidding! If you know her, you know she couldn't care less about showing off her gorgeousness.
And finally, me and my girl! She's looking a little haggard because this is at the end of the party and I had just wiped a pound of frosting off her face. I think all in all she will look back and remember......nothing. But hey! We have pictures to show her so she can never accuse us of not throwing her a big first birthday party. I wish I had a pic of Ben and Malia. Maybe next year I will let Ben plan the whole thing and then I will sit at the party and eat and watch him run around like a chicken with his head cut off while I socialize....and then I will take HIS picture with Malia :) Love you Ben!!!!