First Birthday Celebration at Home

On Brooklyn's actual birthday (11/26) we had our mom's over for dinner, presents and cupcakes! I had been sick the two days leading up to her birthday and really wasn't feeling well on her birthday, but I tried to put my big girl pants on and make my baby's birthday special!

My mom and Ben's mom saved their presents for her actual birthday instead of bringing them to the big party! Ben and I did the same! It was great! This time she really understood what presents were all about!

Next year I think I will wait until after Brooklyn's birthday to put up the Christmas tree. I always put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving but I did not like stockings and the tree up while we were celebrating her birthday.  I don't know what I am going to do if I ever have a December baby! Ha!

Anyway, back to the birthday girl!  After dinner she was ready to dig in to the gifts!

spoiled little girl!

Grams got Brooklyn a new baby doll and a stroller! She loves it!!

 Nana got Brooklyn some puzzles and books! She also got her a KU coat and mittens!

 Daddy made Brooklyn her own key chain! He went to Lowe's and bought keys (a princess key and KU key).  He also put a Vera Bradley ball on her key chain (she loves chewing on my mom's so he thought she would like one on hers).  Ben also got Brooklyn a mini KU sock monkey and a KU bracelet she likes to chew on!

 Mommy got Brooklyn a Gymbo stick puppet! She loves him!

 Her big gift from Mommy and Daddy was a Rock-A-Bye frog.  She did NOT like him at first.  I was sad.  She wanted nothing to do with it.  Now she likes to push the buttons and dance to the music but she still isn't a fan of riding on it.  Maybe someday!

Failed attempt at a family picture! Someone wanted her cupcake!

After presents we had cupcakes! I don't know what I was thinking but pink icing was not a good idea! O well, you only turn 1 once, right?!?! She enjoyed the cupcake and ate almost all of it!

After cupcakes it was bath then bed!

What a special birthday for my little girl! Can't wait to celebrate more birthday's with her! I just hope the years don't go as fast as the first!

A Very Hungry Caterpillar 1st Birthday (part 2)

(check out part 1 of Brooklyn's first birthday party here)

The party was very relaxed and low key! As everyone arrived they made a plate of food and kids did crafts! About an hour into the party we sang Happy Birthday to Brooklyn and let her smash her cake! It was fun! Brooklyn was unsure about the cake at first, but after I showed her that she could eat it she started to enjoy it! She even shared with mommy and daddy! Sweet girl!

Brooklyn hated wearing her party hat, so we only got one picture with her in it.  Bummer!

staying hydrated!

singing happy birthday!!

trying to show her that it is ok to eat the cake!

she got the hang of it and enjoyed every bite!

sharing with mommy and daddy!

the damage! not bad for the first time and such a big cake!

After cake we went straight for the presents! Brooklyn really understood what to do! She knew if she ripped wrapping paper or pulled out tissue paper there would be some sort of toy! She found favorite and would get excited when she really liked something! She loved all of her gifts and thanks everyone so much for them all! She is a very loved and spoiled little girl!

It was a great party! I was sad when it was all over!

Special thanks to my mom for all of her help! The party wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for her! Also, thanks to my dad and Cheryl for helping with food! Lisa too-all the food was amazing!

A big thanks to my favorite Uncle Duane and Aunt Laura for coming up from Wichita and helping! They helped mom cut up fruit the night before, helped decorate and get everything to the Community Center and most of all Duane was the photographer! He captured everything perfectly! SO thankful for him!

Happy 1st Birthday to my beautiful baby girl! I love you so much, Brooklyn!!

A Very Hungry Caterpillar 1st Birthday

Part 1:

I started planning Brooklyn's first birthday many months ago! I decided on The Very Hungry Caterpillar theme! I love that book, and Brooklyn does too! I know Brooklyn will always want some sort of pink, princess, girly themed birthday in all the years to come, so I went with a gender neutral party theme! Having the party theme come from a book made planning super easy and fun!

With Brooklyn's birthday being so close to Thanksgiving it was hard trying to figure out when to have the party.  We went with November 17, which is 9 days before her actual birthday but it worked best! Another struggle was trying to decide what time to have the party.  I know a lot of kids take naps in the afternoon, so I didn't want to do a late afternoon party.  But, Brooklyn also still takes a morning nap so I was torn on what time to have the party.  We ended up having the party from 10am-12pm.  I wasn't serving enough food to consider it lunch so that is why we had it right before lunch.  I ended up waking Brooklyn up at 5:30am the day of her party so she would go down for a nap around 8am.  It worked out great!!

We rented a room at the Liberty Community Center, which was so nice to not have to worry about hosting a party at my house!  We had food from the book and caterpillar and butterfly crafts for the kids! It was a great party!

This is the invitation I ordered from Etsy.  I love it!

 Here are the craft tables that were set up! I saved egg cartons for months and had family members do the same.  I spray painted them green for body and one red for the head.  Kids could add eyes, pipe cleaners and pom poms! I also had clothespin butterflies. Color a coffee filter and stick it in a clothespin.  Add a pipe cleaner for antennae! Also, I found a Very Hungry Caterpillar printable and just made a lot of copies and set them out for kids to color!

 Kids working hard on their crafts!!

 Decorations!! My mom found the high chair at a Consignment sale and she spray painted it green for me!! It turned out exactly how I imagined it! Perfect! 

 I paid a pretty penny for Brooklyn's outfit but I love it! I found it on Etsy!

 Here is a picture of the room before we started decorating and after! We just added all colors of table cloths, all colors of balloons and sprinkled some colorful dots on the center of the tables and it was perfect! Not too much decoration but enough to make it fun and festive!

The caterpillar cupcake cake!! Turned out amazing! The red caterpillar head was Brooklyn's smash cake and the body was cupcakes for the party guests!

 

 The first picture is the only picture taken of the Watch Me Grow Caterpillar.  It had all of Brooklyn's monthly chair pictures-it turned out so cute! I love it! My mom also made a picture board of favorite pictures of Brooklyn from her first year! It turned out great! I also had a Very Hungry Caterpillar book for everyone to write a birthday wish for Brooklyn in. 

Food Table! We had everything the caterpillar ate in the book! Apples, oranges, plums (we used grapes), strawberries, watermelon, cupcakes, cherry pie, chocolate cake, salami, sausage, pickles, ice cream cone (we just had ice cream cone stickers-less mess!) and lollipops!

My balloon wreath that I worked very hard on! I thought it would be fun to make one, but it was time consuming and a bit expensive-didn't realize how many balloons I would actually use!

 

Part 2 coming soon....

Build-A-Bear

We started a tradition for Brooklyn's birthday! We decided every year we are going to take her to Build-A-Bear and then out to lunch! So, we started that the weekend before her first birthday!

She loved Build-A-Bear! Ben picked up several different bears for her to choose from, she chose a soft, white bear!


It was a little overwhelming for Ben and me! We were the ones making the decisions and what outfit to buy and what to name the bear! Maybe next year Brooklyn will have more of an opinion and will be able to tell us what she wants! Ha!

Her new white bear-with no fluff yet!

stepping on the pedal to add fluff to the bear! She was confused!

giving her bear a hug after filling it!

bathing the bear!

on the search for an outfit for the new bear

daddy filling out the bears birth certificate

So, we named the bear Baxter and bought a pink outfit for the bear.  Oops! So, some days we call the bear a he and other days the bear is a she.  Right now, Baxter is currently undressed.  For some reason Brooklyn likes the bear without clothes! Silly girl!

After Build-A-Bear we headed to lunch at 54th street.  Brooklyn is really good at restaurants! She loves looking around and people watching.  As long as she has food to eat and people to look at she is content!

It was a great birthday celebration for Brooklyn with just mommy and daddy! We can't wait to do this every year!!

Thanksgiving 2012

The first year Ben and I were together we went to Alabama for Thanksgiving to see my mom's side of the family.  We had a lot of fun and wish we could go every year, but flying and/or driving is just not budget friendly.  So, for the past several years we have joined my dad on Thanksgiving. 

On Thanksgiving my dad joins The Lile Family's Thanksgiving.  My dad and Don Lile were best friends in high school.  The Lile's live in Plattsburg! It is a great time! We call it Lile Land!

Don always fry's 2 turkeys and everyone else brings a side dish, or two! We sit around and eat, drink and play cards! Perfect day!

Last year at Lile Land Thanksgiving I was one day past my due date and going to be induced the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  I was so excited to take Brooklyn to Lile Land! She had a great time! The only bad part of the day was trying to get her to nap.  She would not nap in my lap so I put her in the car and drove around the farm for 2 seconds and she was out.  I parked the car by the front door of the Lile's house and let her sleep!

Lile Land Thanksgiving picture recap!!

We went outside for the annual kids scavenger hunt! It was such great weather! Brooklyn loved being outside and loved the cows and the dogs!

Family picture! 

 I put Brooklyn in her Christmas pajamas on Thanksgiving night! She was sound asleep once we got in the car to head home! Sweet baby!

It was a great Thanksgiving, and as always, we can't wait to go back! We love Lile Land!!!

Pumpkin Patch 2012

It is catch up week for the Brunker blog.  I am really hoping to get all caught up this week and going to try to stay caught up in 2013. 

On a chilly fall day we took Brooklyn to the Pumpkin Patch.  Ben's mom joined us! We went to Carolyn's Country Cousins just outside of Liberty.  Brooklyn and I actually went one day together with MOMS club in the afternoon when they have free admission, but it was fun to go as a family!

Attempted to get a picture of our family in the cut out's but Brooklyn did not want to cooperate! Ha!

 Brooklyn loved the animals and petting zoo!

 We took a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch.  Brooklyn did not like waiting for it to start moving, but once the tractor started moving she was content and loved looking around!

 My pumpkin with her big pumpkin! We found several pumpkins in the field that we wanted, but we decided not to haul them back on the hay ride with us.  We ended up just buying some on our way out!

 Family photo in the pumpkin patch!

 Happy girl! We enjoyed some snacks at the pumpkin patch as well.  Ben and I had a piece of pecan pie and Lisa had pumpkin donuts, which Brooklyn loved!

 Trying to find the perfect pumpkins to take home! The pumpkin patch was a successful trip! We can't wait to go back next year! I am sure Brooklyn will be able to do a lot more things!!

I am excited to get to take a picture in this same spot every year and watch to see how much Brooklyn grows each fall! Such fun memories!