Happy Birthday Gabriella!

It has taken me forever to get through these pictures! It has been one crazy week with our new one year old. She is really starting to walk quite a bit and is really learning a lot. It sounds like she is trying to repeat what we say now. Of course, we are the only ones that can probably understand her, but she is well on her way.

I'll start with all the goodies from her party and post her pictures later. A friend of the family helped make these sugar cookies. I had bought the cookie cutter but then decided I bit off more than I could chew. Ann came along and made me these great cookies. Erin and I iced the cookies for the party and I think they turned out pretty darn cute.

I found ice cream cones that came in pink, brown and white colors so I rolled the cones in melted chocolate and then sprinkles to make a great holder for the goodies. I filled them with jelly beans and brown and pink M&M's. Those weighted the cones down enough to place the chocolate ice cream pops I made and the pink and brown covered sticks. The kiddo's all got a cone to take home from the party. I also saw these cute "ice cream soda" centerpieces on the Internet so I made four of them to put around her cake at the party.
I had gotten an ice cream cone pan and decided to make rice crispy squares in it and cover it with melted chocolate.
My intention was to make Gabriella a "healthy" version of a cake. I had bought this other cute cake pan that looked like ice cream cones and I made banana bread for her cake. They didn't turn out quite like I wanted so in the midnight hour I made her this white cake and just put an ice cream cone on it with icing. Needless to say, she destroyed the cake but didn't really eat any of it. So I grabbed some green beans and she munched on those instead :)
Here was the cake we bought for everyone to enjoy. It's a white cake with a chocolate pudding layer. I thought it was quite tasty!

So as you can see, I got a little carried away on the desserts and goodies, but I was pretty happy with how everything turned out. It just took a little more time than I had anticipated, but who needs sleep right? :) To eat, we had some pulled pork (that a family friend helped us make) hot dogs, green beans, ABC mac and cheese, chips and salad.

The weather held out for us and I was so thankful when the storm came through later that night that we weren't all huddled out under the pavilion at the park. Yikes! All in all, I think Miss Gabriella had a wonderful first birthday! Her favorite part was probably sitting in her high chair and destroying her cake, while her least favorite part....was getting a quick bath in the bathroom sink.

We are truly blessed with all our family and friends that helped us celebrate our little girls special day. Thank you and Happy First Birthday Gabriella!