1st year pictures

{On our way to dinner} "Let's stop for a few minutes and take some pictures of Layne before we go." The following is an example of how it went.....either Brynn was running into the picture or posing at different locations then insisting I take pictures of him. I think he needed some extra attention that day since we had been focused on Laynn for her special day. Because of this a "few minutes" turned into about 35 min. It abruptly ended when my patience ran dry. We got more good ones then I had thought, especially after we pulled out the bubbles. After that, we headed over to Bucco De Beppo to eat bread four ways; garlic bread, regular bread, pasta, and cake. That's my kind of meal baby!

Laynie's Carnival Birthday

Laynie, our little crazy nut, turned one on July seventh. I thought it would be super fun to plan an outdoor party since everyone else in our family is in the winter. All in all it turned out pretty cute, but I just wish I had planned better for the actual decorating time. Oh, and if I could have made the wind go away that would have been awesome too. We almost moved inside the church across the street because of the pesky wind but I decided everyone would look much better for the pictures with wind blowing through their hair. It was also worth it for seeing plates of food catching a gust and smacking other people in the face...OK that only happened once but it was really good (I know-I'm messed up).

We had the best face painter ever! She even came early and helped me throw together some of the food and decorations....along with some of the guests (thanks again! Hey do you guys want to come over for dinner so you can cook it all while I run around and do nothing?!). At some point I threw away the idea of things being aesthetically pleasing and starting duct taping everything including a broken ketchup bottle to a stack of napkins to the table. (There goes that $1 table cloth I had planned on re-using when you all come over to make me dinner at my house.) So if you see a lot of ghetto taping jobs in the pictures it was out of necessity and just pretend it's not there.

The first thing we did was play the games. I didn't get pictures of the games, so I'll tell you about it. 'Knock Em Down' was the classic milk can game where........you guessed it..... you knocked them down with a ball. 'Spray Away' is a game with four golf tees (sitting in a drilled out piece of wood) that held four ping pong balls and you had to knock the ping pong balls off with a squirt gun. We also had 'Balloon Darts' and 'Bean Bag Toss' So basically we were trying to see which kid we were going to hang out by when the world ends in October (sorry Brynn, you didn't make the cut this time). After games we ate a little food and ton of junk. We had to squeeze it all on one table so things could hold others things to discourage all things from blowing away. The term, "Strength in numbers" could apply to food tables in a wind storm. You could also use it if you're in need of protection by kids with bean bags and darts. As you can see, it's a really versatile term. The last game was a watermelon eating contest and can I just brag about my husband for a minute please? He owned every single one of them! I'm a proud wife-nothing wrong with that.

After food Laynie smashed her cake and even took a little break in the middle and rested her head on it. Or maybe she loved the cake so much she was trying to give it a hug (I'm with you honey). Either way it was so adorable!!

Thank you so much to everyone that took the time to come! There is honestly no one else we'd rather run around in the wind with and pick up napkins and plates and silverware and taffy and signs and letters that go on signs, then you. It meant so much. :