Alice in One-derland

Happy First Birthday to Alice Lark Lambert! We celebrated Alice's birthday over the weekend. We decided to keep things low-key and celebrate just our family at home on Saturday and video call my parents when she opened their presents (I wish I took a picture of the adorable white fur coat they gave her!). Then we had Jared's parents and brother over for a little "Alice in One-derland" tea party on Sunday. I liked dong it this way because I wanted to be able to reflect on the year and enjoy my baby on her birthday, and then Sunday I was ready to jump into more of a party-throwing headspace. 

^^Jack was really excited about the idea of a "smash cake" for Alice's birthday and hoped she'd stick her whole face in and then tear it apart. This particular "cake" was a dairy-free gluten-free banana bread with a can of duncan hines cream cheese frosting (no dairy). Didn't want to risk upsetting her tummy on her birthday, especially because early last week we gave her some yogurt and she spent the next 72 hours with all-day all-night painful diarrhea. Poor girlie. We're stepping back to the cheese step of the dairy ladder and will wait another month or two before attempting yogurt again. Her face when trying the frosting the first time was pretty funny. She probably wasn't expecting something so sweet. But after a few tastes she really went for it and did in fact stick her face in at one point.

^^A musical book from Grandma and Grandpa Haines. Alice's greatest love is music and she is attached to this thing at the hip now. It's a great carseat toy.

^^Alice's One-derland tea party! This was the first time I've ever made a balloon arch and it was surprisingly very simple. Jared and I made it the night before while watching Harry Potter. If we had a balloon inflator it would've been even easier. A balloon arch might be my new party go-to because it's big impact for little effort. You can buy a kit on Amazon (that's what this one was), but now that I know how to do it I think I'll just make sure to keep balloon tape on hand and then buy a pack of cheap balloons at the grocery store. 

I found that neat vase at our local thrift store and picked the flowers from our own garden. Jared and I each independently planted zinnias in our backyard. It was so satisfying to pick them and make this beautiful wild centerpiece. We will be growing zinnias every year from now on I think.

^^I made chicken salad sandwiches and put out plenty of fruit and mini pastries. Jared decorated a daisy cake that came out looking sort of like a sunny-side-up egg, but since whimsy was the goal of this party it was perfect. Jared's mom brought the "tea," which was an assortment of juices--lime, peach, and apple. She had the cutest teapots and teacups to go with them. I think I might want every family gathering and party I host in the future to be a whimsical tea party. It felt so fun and casual, but also pretty and fancy at the same time. 

^^Alice with Grandma Lambert! I had big plans to trim Alice's hair into a cute bob and have it looking nice for the pictures, but Jared slicked it to the side with mousse mid-afternoon and there wasn't time to give her a bath or wash it out so I did the best I could with her crunchy bangs. Note to selves--mousse is great for Jack's 5-year-old short boy hair. Not so good for Alice's fine, long baby hair. 

^^I made a garland of pictures from each month of Alice's life, just like I did for Jack's first birthday. I'll try and remember to post them with a general Alice at One Year update next week. This is also the unofficial reveal of the built-in bookshelves we made earlier this year! I haven't styled them yet, so for now it's a random amalgamation of books and objects. Now that Jack is in kindergarten it will be a fun project to work on styling them. But this room feels 100% cozier with the moody bookshelves. We loooove curling up to watch a movie here at night now. 

^^Another smash cake for Alice. This time much smaller and from a box cake mix. She loved it. Note the strawberry stem hat Jack put on her head. Man I wish Jack had some cousins his age here to play with at family gatherings. He mostly enjoyed himself but I could tell all the adult conversation and just sitting around talking wasn't quite the party he was imagining. 

^^After dinner and cake we walked to a nearby field to fly a kite. It wasn't windy but we still got some lift by running it up and down the field. Jack successfully attached it to his bike and had it flying behind him down the sidewalk at one point. 

^^A few last presents before she turned in for the night. We could tell Alice really enjoyed her party! Usually she spends the hours from 4:00-7:00 pretty fussy. I was prepared for that because she misses a nap on Sunday and usually has a very hard time getting through the day, but when all the party guests arrived and she found herself the center of attention, she was the happiest I've ever seen her. Grinned from ear to ear most of the evening. It reminded me a lot of her brother at one-year-old. It was very cute. We love Alice and are excited to watch her grow and learn so much during her next year of life.