After the Braids and Before the Bath

Last week, I put 25 braids in Zoe's hair; by far the most we have ever done.  Yesterday, I took them out and wow, did she have some crazy hair.  You can really see how long it is getting and how much she actually has.  I love it.  I actually procrastinated her bath until later in the day because I loved watching her run around with her wild hair.

Lagoon

On Tuesday, we went on an impromptu trip to Lagoon (amusement park) with a few of our friends.  We had a great time and enjoyed hanging out together as a family.

This Lagoon trip was the first time that Robby was tall enough to ride all of the rides.  He is a roller coater fanatic; he loves them.  He was so excited that he could finally ride them all.  I was such a fraidy cat when I was a kid and was petrified of roller coasters.  I am so glad that he isn't like me, in that way, and that he can enjoy them now.  He loved every ride he went on.  Plus, two of his best buddies were there, so that made the day even better.  He had a really good time.

Zoe, as usual, was a little angel.  I can't believe how well she does at places like that.  She is so patient and flexible.  She seems to really enjoy watching the people, being outside, and seeing new things.  She rode a lot of the little kid rides.  She was pretty indifferent about them.  She seemed to enjoy a few of them, but mostly she didn't care either way.

My favorite part of the day was watching Robby take care of Zoe.  He was so good about riding all the little kid rides with her and keeping an eye on her.  Whenever they rode together, he always kept his eye on her, making sure she was okay and that she was having fun.  I think he had fun watching her enjoy herself.  He is such a great big brother.

Robby, the Toothless Wonder

In the last week and half, Robby has lost both of his top front teeth.  He looks so goofy and cute without his tooth.  I love it!

You Only Get One First Birthday

So, it took me almost a month to get this posted, but finally, here it is.  Sorry it is a little picture heavy.  I had planned on dividing into several posts, but I am afraid it will never get done if I do that.

We had a lot  of fun for Zoe's first birthday.  We had a fun party with both Grandmas and Grandpas and Aunt Emily.  She got way too many birthday presents, but loved them all.  We had tasty cake, fun decorations, and all in all, just had a good time.  And we took a lot of pictures, since she won't remember it.  It was a great day to celebrate the last year.  We have been so blessed to have Zoe in our life and look forward to many more happy years and fun birthday parties.

I may have went a little crazy on the decorations, but hey, my baby only gets one first birthday. Plus, I am using them all to decorate her room now.  I sewed a pink and green fabric banner.  It was an easy, fun project that I will probably have to do again soon.   I also sewed Zoe a cute skirt, appliqued some stars on a t-shirt, and made a party hat, all out of the same matching fabric.  Then I made some fun tissue paper flowers (instructions here) which we hung from the ceiling.

I need to decorate my house for special occassions more often.  It was so festive; it made me happy just to walk in the room.  It was kind of hard to take it all down, but now it looks cute in Zoe's room, so all is well.

Zoe got a lot of fun presents.  This is only a few of them.  (Ya, she is a little spoiled.)

Emily gave her this really cute phone.  It reminds me of when I was a kid.

I wasn't sure if she would like this stoller, or if she is still too young, but she loved it.  As soon as she opened it, she knew exactly what to do with it and pushed it around all over the place.

Kirk's mom and dad gave her this very cute doll, which she loves to give hugs and kisses too.  I won this great CD on a blog giveaway.  All of the songs have her name in them somewhere.  It is really cute.  (Side note- This is also the only picture that shows her hair.  These were my very first real cornrows.  They actually turned out pretty cute.)

This was probably the biggest hit of the birthday.  One of our friends gave her this little stuffed Lilly doll.  It sings a pretty annoying counting song.  She thinks it is the greatest thing ever.  She loves Lilly.

My favorite present was this bike seat that we gave her.  I love that it puts her in the front of the bike so she can see what is going on.  It is so fun to go on bike rides with her and Robby now.  She loves it, and even loves to wear her helmet.

Our final activity of the day was eating cake.  As is tradition, I made her a cake that she could dig into and eat any way she wanted.  She enjoyed herself quite a bit.  We probably should have done it a little earlier in the day.  She was a little overstimulated and tired by this point, so she wasn't incredibly patient, but I think she still had a good time.

The cakes.

Robby enjoyed blowing out her candle.

At first, she had no clue what to do with the cake.  She knew she wanted to eat it, but wasn't sure if she wanted to touch it.  She tried the bobbing for cake method, but it didn't work out too well.

It didn't take long though before she figured out how to use her hands.  After that, there was no stopping her.