What a day! Ry’s actual birthday (photos to come) was on May 18th. A Tuesday is no good for a party and since I had to work the weekend before, we decided to have the party on Sunday May 23. This also happened to be Uncle’s 16th birthday, but he was gracious enough to share is special day for Ry’s party! I have been scheming and working on plans for this party for the last month or so. I was inspired by another blogger-mama‘s decorations she did for her little girl’s first birthday. I made all of the decorations myself and all I had to buy was a hole punch and ribbon. I also bought bright colored placemats for some accents.  We had a big taco bar with all the fixins’ that everyone seemed to enjoy. (I wish I would have got photos of the spread!) Daddy was in and out of the party but that’s another post for another time.

Since I can’t figure out how to go back through and type between the photos after I’ve inserted them into the blog post, I will go photo by photo here:

1. I made this “Happy Birthday Rylee” banner using scrapbook paper and other scrapping supplies I already had. This banner ended up being the “theme” for the rest of the party. I am excited that I can use this banner for years to come too!
2. Close up of “Happy” Right before the H, there is a little photo of Ry from the day she was born.
3. Close up of “Birthday”
4. Close up of “Rylee!”
5. I made these too. Each photo circle represents one of Ry’s birthdays; birth, 1 year, 2 year. I plan on adding to these each year. I used the same scrapbook paper as I did with the banner. The little streamers are made from the paper scraps from the banner.
6. A view of the house from the kitchen. You can see there are some triangle banners hung in the entry way and over the dining room window. I made these triangle banners from the paper scraps too.
7. Auntie Keri helped me make homemade cupcakes for the party. We had chocolate and yellow to choose from. The tops were decorated with orange frosting and pink lettering that read “Happy Birthday Rylee”. The photo of Rylee in the upper right hand corner is one that Bliss did, this also helped add to the theme of the party that carried throughout. In the upper left hand corner were the party favors that we handed out to everyone that came. They were cards  that Bliss did that had a photos from Ry’s photo shoot. They made the perfect 2-year photos.
8. Close up of the “Happy Birthday Rylee” cupcakes.
9. “& JP” I made sure to include Uncle on the cupcakes too!
10. Another view of the cupcakes and photo. This time including the tu-tu suprise!
11. Ry was not enthused about the tu-tu at first! This is her throwing a little fit…it was too cute not to include a photo of this!
12. She calmed down and did a puzzle with Uncle. I love the piggies! She even kept them in the WHOLE day! Her eyes look so big in this picture.
13. I call this one “I couldn’t have picked a better Auntie!” HA! (See what I did there…it was a play on words)
14. Time to blow out the candles!
15. Opening up her gifts! And a good shot of the pig tails.
16. Heading outside for her last present…big SURPRISE to come!
17. I think this is a cute photo of us walking.
18. A beautiful photo of Ry! One of my favorites of the day.
19. It wouldn’t be a complete birthday party without bubbles!
20. Trying out her new SLIDE! Ry loved it! And, for every readers future reference: a tu-tu is a great way to gain speed on a slide! I’m pretty sure that Rylee caught air at more than one point!
21. Checking out one of the new swings! (SIDE NOTE: A special thanks to all the grandparents and great grandparents and all the other family that helped make this play structure possible (both with $ and the help to put it together)! We could NOT have done it without you!)
22. Giving Kian hugs good-bye…so-so sweet! I can’t wait to have the kids play together this Summer!
23. Mama had to have a little fun with the tu-tu too!

And…I just realized I included 23 photos! Holy Moly! As you can see, Rylee had a great time. Thanks to everyone who joined us for her celebration! She is so lucky to have so much family so close…We love all of you!