Oh Happy Day :-)

First off, I need to say I know I will forget to mention somethings - so please forgive me. I will probably make more than one post today as I think of things to add!!

I will start off by saying that Charli's birthday was great, everything we hoped it would be.
Saturday morning Charli woke up with her daddy and went to go drive around and look at 'trucks' like they do every weekend! When they came home we sang happy birthday to her as she ate her breakfast! (she loved to be sang to) She took a great nap in the morning, and that gave us time to decorate and get ready for the BIG day! When she woke up we played some more, ate dinner, and put her back down for a nap early in the afternoon - so she would be ready to handle the day ahead of her! She woke up about 20 minutes after people got her, which worked out very well!

While Charli napped Chad filled up the over 130 balloons we had for her and I started to work on the meal. Once Chad got the balloons ready I distributed them around on the picnic tables and around our fence in the yard, etc. A little later - it started to sprinkle :-(. We were so disappointed. The balloons all fell flat and we felt like our plan for the day was shot. We brought the balloons that weren't tied down in from the rain, and they perked back up...so we thought the others were just weighed down with water, we were thankful for that!! Then, all of a sudden Chad and Charli saw a bundle of about 40 balloons float away. UGH - the group of balloons that Charli was going to release later that day took off on their own :-(. The day was not starting off too great! We went to pick up her cakes and I got more balloons - solved that problem! THEN - after people started to arrive we got a WONDERFUL call from our neighbors that said they had a canopy tent we could borrow to cover a few tables from the rain. PRAISE THE LORD, THANK YOU!!! So my dad and I went over to get it and several of the guys helped Chad put it up. That tent was a God send...it made the day so much better, because it did sprinkle a bit off and on.
Once everyone made it to the party we watched the video I talked about a few days ago. Everyone loved it - we were so happy to share it with everyone!

After that we got things ready and everyone ate! The rest of the afternoon was just visiting and playing! Charli got to release her bunch of balloons, the rained cleared up enough to pop the balloons back up - and the day was just great.

Charli liked her cake, the frosting was much brighter in her hair than it was on the cake! She opened her gifts, but would have rather been on the floor playing! She got great gifts, and has played with all of them - and enjoyed all of them! She made it through the entire event without missing a beat, she finally went to bed as people were getting ready to leave for the night.
Thank you to all of you who made the party. All of our family (who lives in state!!) made it, and it made our day! The guests included her great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and Lynn & Lonnie (daycare).

(these are not in the right order...sorry!!!)

birthday girl!!

me and my grand-parents...I was SO happy they came!

mommy & daddy decorated the front of the house!

I thought these were for me, good thing I can share!

my FUN toy from Grandma Deb, it turns into a car too!

I love my grandpas!!

and my grandmas!!

Grandma always has pretty jewelry on to play with!

Grandma & Grandpa Preister

Grandma & Grandpa Borg...they forgot to look at the camera!

say cheese...and hand over the cake!

the frosting was much brighter in my hair, then on the cake!!

getting ready to make a wish, and let the balloons go!

there goes a lot of wishes!

me with ALL my grandparents - so fun to have them all there at once!

daddy was busy all morning with the balloons!

this was my cake for everyone to eat!!

WOW...are these for me?!

lots of love from Lynn & Lonnie!

"#1" birthday cupcakes for my daycare party!

I got FUN blocks from my daycare party...daddy like them too!

everyone at my party wore their "Charli" shirts!

What a FUN party!!!

I was SO tired after my parties...I was OUT!

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE for all the gifts and cards for my 1st birthday! Mommy and Daddy thought it would be such a sad day for them, but my party was so much fun - they didn't even have time to be sad that their baby turned one!