Katherine's First Birthday

My sweet baby girl turned one yesterday.  She had a great day and I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.

We started the birthday celebration early in the week, by meeting Daddy for a dinner date at McAlister's Deli (our favorite place in the whole wide world).  It was Family Night so Katherine scored an awesome monkey balloon animal, which she loved despite the picture.

Monday and Tuesday gave us gorgeous weather, which we took full advantage of.  We went to the park, where Katherine hit the swings for the very first time.  The swings changed her life forever.  She's such a little daredevil.

Of course after two days of temperatures in the 70's and sunny skies, it snowed.  And got cold.  This didn't ruin Katherine's big day.  We started the day off with a donut breakfast.  It was Katherine's first taste of the "sweet life" and I think she was impressed.

She opened a few birthday gifts, with the help of Callie who loves "helping" to open gifts at any holiday.  We got her a Bitty Baby, not knowing if she'd even like it.  When I took her to the American Girl store a while back, she could only focus on playing with the seat belt of her stroller as I jumped around like an idiot showing her all of the cool doll displays.  To my surprise she loved her baby.  She reached for it immediately after Jason took it out of the box and then proceeded to give it kisses.  Melt.  My.  Heart.

For lunch, we gave her what she loves the most:  mac and cheese.  The absolute best place for mac and cheese is Noodles and Co.  So that's where we went.  

We followed that with Jilly's cupcakes.  It turns out, Katherine's not that impressed by cupcakes...yet.  I'm not giving up on this.  

She played in her cupcake for a while, then she was over it.

{New soccer ball from Uncle Zach}

{Love for baby}

{First birthday family photo}

{Our new ride}

It was a perfect day and a perfect first birthday.  We're so blessed.  

Birthday week won't be complete without Katherine's first birthday party this weekend.  I'm so excited for her to be surrounded by friends and family to help her celebrate her first birthday!