its my party and i'll cry if i want to

My lovely sister abby spent the night friday so that she could help with all of the 'last minute set-up' on saturday morning/early afternoon. The party was to be at 2:00. i had done as much as possible by friday, in order to cut down on stress: cleaned, set up chairs and tables, decorated, etc. We had the little "shin-dig" in our basement. Its a nice wide-open space. At the far wall, we set the food/drinks out on our bar. On the card table to the side i had all of her photoalbums set out. Around the entire room we had chairs set up in a big U. And on this computer i had a PowerPoint Slideshow of erica's pictures.

the only thing really left to do on Saturday was food. Abby and i figured that we could wait until 1:00 to start getting it together... After all, the party was starting at 2:00. We put erica down for a nap a bit after 12:00... Well, most everyone showed up around 1:30-1:45. And of course, erica was still sleeping. SO, we had to go wake her up and put her dress on, and when she came downstairs she was still sleepy and groggy... So that when she saw EVERYONE, she was so overwhelmed and scared that she started to cry. :-( We only had family over. (well, and clairissa-- cuz reagan and erica are great friends!) But even so, there were 20 adults + five kids. yeah, really crowded. Luckily, her tears didnt last long. She ended up having a lovely time.

Abby and i ran around trying to get stuff in the oven, and then Andrew took over with the food. THANK YOU HUNNY! it was so nice having him do that so that i could just be downstairs with erica and our guests. i have NO CLUE how much erica ate. but it was a ton, i'm sure. she kept walking around the room and people fed her as she walked by. ... the animals that we decorated with each had a corresponding food: cows-- cheese; chicken-- chicken fingers; pigs-- pigs in a blanket; sheep-- baaaah-thday cake. So, she had lots of cheese, chicken, and hot dogs. (the cake was yet to come)

She opened presents then. had fun; she has so many fun toys now. we played with them later that night; she had a blast. The picture shown is of a hippo that she can ride on top of-- she loves it! it thrills her to be pushed around while sitting on it. she also got a toy castle-- she's been playing with that this morning. lots of cute clothes-- i need to wash them sometime today. Oh, she got a musical xylaphone (is that what its called/how its spelled?), and she loves tapping on it to make music.

and then it was cake time. WHAT A MESS! ah well. she only turns One once. but she truly did make a mess of everything. especially her hair. andrew bought a regular cake and also an icecream cake-- she only had the regular vanilla cake though. i didnt want to overload her with TWO TYPES of cakes. she already had eaten so much.

so, erica wouldnt sleep that night. She'd only had one nap, and that was cut short when we woke her up for the party. She was awake then until 9ish, and just wouldnt fall asleep. i wonder if she had too much sugar in her system to settle down and sleep. added to that also is the fact that she hasnt been sleeping well at all lately. she's becoming such a "light" sleeper-- any little sound wakes her up.

Of course, maybe she just knew that there were so many new toys to play with that she didnt want to be banished to her crib.