Family Alive

Here’s the pictoral run-down of the Big Event! I love the picture above – Analise modeling her heirloom dress after the party. It was worth the effort (see here for the background story). She looked like an angel, and not even I noticed all the little flaws that I’ve been listing in my head. (There are more detailed pictures of the dress at the end of the blog.)

We had a great time yesterday celebrating Analise’s 1st year with our Alabama friends and family. I finished Analise’s beautiful, handmade smocked dress at 10:30 Friday night, while Brian wrapped her gifts. With some great organized help from my in-laws, we had a relatively easy morning getting everything together to get all our stuff to the park for the shindig. The only bumps in the road were Brian forgetting the presents, and the Toones forgetting the fruit, both easily remedied by a couple quick trips.

It was in the upper 80’s but we had a covered area decked out for the picnic. A few Baby Einstein decorations, Jim Nick’s BBQ pork and chicken, baked beans, chips and queso dip, fresh fruit and a plethora of cake:)

Analise was thoroughly impressed to have a sizable 2-layer cake (NOT the one in the picture above, but in the 3-cake picture, the bottom right) all her own (free, courtesy of Publix bakery!), and she diligently squished it all over, and even tried eating it with a fork, below. After all the confusion over the cakes, I have to say I was partial to the cheaper cake from Publix over the high-end bakery cake. But every sure enjoyed having all the cake to sample – and there was more than enough!

She wanted to touch anyone nearby, but we all stayed just out of reach to avoid being smeared with chocolate buttercream. The only way to get her clean was by hosing her off!

We took a little hike up the hill to the waterfalls we discovered a few weeks ago. It was fun to share the unexpected treasure in the middle of suburbia with our friends. I think they were duly impressed:) Here’s part of the birthday crowd – the Kawell family and all the Toones.

Last, we let Analise enjoy her presents. She got a great new metallic soccer ball, a Leapfrog caterpillar pal, a cute bunny bath towel, an orange stuffed dog, and a Leapfrog Fridge Farm. The latter allows you to put together animal parts, like the front half of a purple cow and the back half of a pink pig. It tells you what you’ve created in a funny little song, and it also has a little banjo number that’s causing Analise to bounce up and down with excitement. Very cute! It’s our personal favorite. Sidenote: It’s always helpful to get toys for your little one that you will enjoy too – makes you more likely to sit down and play with them! Here’s a sweet picture that Brian caught of Analise and uncle Matthew walking to the playground.

Finally, here are a few more detailed pictures of the dress. The first one below is the back of the dress. The top of the dress is “smocked” or pleated and embroidered. The embroidery was the easiest part. Then after the dress is put together, the satin ribbons are woven into the embroidery – much harder than you’d think. The ribbons tie at the back. (There needs to be 1 or 2 more snaps so it doesn’t gape as it does in the picture.) The lower picture shows the smocking/ribbons up close. I’m glad I did it… but I’m glad I’m done. Back to a low difficulty hobby like scrapbooking for a while. I think I have enough pictures to keep me busy!