Monkey Business

I cannot believe that a year has come and gone. Only 3 more days until our baby girl is 1! The past week has been a little busy with the arrival of my niece Sadie! A post about that coming soon. We planned Laurel's birthday party 2 weeks before her actual birthday just in case Sadie decided to come early and I'm so glad that we did! We decided to do something really small for Laurel's first birthday and it was so relaxed and fun. We had it at Teddy and Suzu's new house in College Station and just invited family (and a couple close friends). Nat, the kids, and I went up early because I had this grand plan of making Laurel's cake and I had this picture in my head of what I wanted it to be and I had a feeling it might take a while. Side note: some of you might be laughing because you remember that I did this for Micah's first birthday and after spending 3 hours on a gumpaste elephant, I threw it in the trash, had a small nervous breakdown, and ended up getting the cake from a bakery (thanks to my mother in law who took the picture of the over-ambitious cake to her favorite bakery and then bought the cake for us). Well, I am still an idiot and was bound and determined to do it again but actually complete the cake. Just for the record, I will never... mark my words, NEVER make another cake for one of my children's birthdays. Did you hear that? I said it. Now you have to hold me to it. I won't even go into how much time I spent on the cake, how many cakes I threw away, and how unhappy I am with the final product. End side note. Being up there an extra day gave us a little extra time to relax at Suzu and Teddy's *amazing* new house!

Micah kept wanting to "hear baby Sadie". He'd put his ear up to Nat's tummy and say "Oh! I heared her!" Too cute! The second picture is of Micah's new obsession: the built in bunk beds in the grandkid room. He is in heaven. I am pretty sure we are going to have to get him bunk beds for his room since it is all he talks about. The last picture is just of Suzu and Laurel rocking on the patio. I do not really like being outside but something about that house and their back patio makes me ONLY want to be outside!

OK, on to the party! I had so much fun planning this pink monkey party for my little monkey!

Before I get to the party details, here are a few pictures of the birthday girl in her party gear. I made her cupcake shirt and bought the pettiskirt and hair clippie on Etsy. SOOO glad I did not attempt making the skirt like I originally planned. See, I do have a little common sense.

This is the view you got when she'd crawl away. :)

Party Details:

Decorations: tissue pom poms, hanging monkeys and bananas (made with my silhouette), banner (made with silhouette), sign on door, pictures hanging of Laurel from each month. I had a big monkey sitting by a vase full of banana runts as you walked in. Next to that, I had a monkey children's book for all of the guests to sign. I did this for Micah's party too and it is a fun but useful way to have a guestbook. I also had lots of balloons up throughout the house.

Food: birthday cake (don't get me started), monkey and 1 cookies (BIG thanks to Audrey for making the adorable monkey cookies!), hot dogs/hamburgers, chips and dips, and fruit. I had some leftover valentine m&m's that I put out too (after I picked out all the reds-- this was another one of those common sense moments).

I wanted it to be super cute but I tried to not go all out because it was such a small party. I was so happy with how cute everything turned out and how much fun everyone had! BIG THANKS to Suzu and Teddy for opening up there new home and helping with all of the food (ok pretty much doing all of the food while I obsessed over the cake).

Cake time! To say that the little lady enjoyed her cake would be a huge understatement. She really went for it and had it everywhere!

Happy Birthday (in 3 days) little monkey!