Lulu's 1st Birthday.......a couple of weeks late

We had an awesome week of celebrations for our littlest big girl! OK, to be fair, some, if not all, of the celebrations were really for Chris & me.....since we made it a year! We kept our tiny human alive & well for 365 days! Yahoo!

We hosted a family birthday party Thursday & had a photographer take some photos which was a treat!

Lulu also had her first sample of cake....hilariously she didn't love it! She might have just been overtired, but she didn't demolish it as I thought she might! I made funfetti cake for her family party, I love the recipe - you can find it here

Saturday afternoon was our larger party for both family & friends. It was a rainbow themed cocktails  & cupcakes affair! Same deal - Lulu wasn't super into her cupcake! It made me very happy to gather such a wonderful group of people who are so important to us to celebrate our bug. Admittedly, the guest list got slightly out of hand.....and 80+ people RSVPed yes. The weather didn't exactly cooperate for us to utilize our backyard....so we rented heat lamps & borrowed a supplementary fire pit to provide more heat. It worked out perfectly & I think the 60-70 people who celebrated with us enjoyed themselves quite a bit. I know we enjoyed ourselves immensely! I made more of the funfetti cupcakes plus Smitten Kitchen's "I Want Chocolate Cake" for the chocolate cupcake option. They were all iced in the vanilla buttercream from Brown Eyed Baker, linked above. Costco was my go to for the food, plus we had a bunch of pizza delivered. Chris & I wanted to enjoy Lulu's party & visit with our family & friends - so I refused to do any food that had to be attended to!!

12 months of our Lulu bug

It is very relaxing to color sort M&Ms & Skittles. Not that we did that.....

I baked 105 cupcakes & had lots of help icing them; thanks Mom, Marg & Lynn!

We only did snacky foods - love the rainbow theme

Lots of people were surprised by the purple cauliflower - I didn't dye it! It grows that way :)

Happy Birthday to Lulu!

Trying out her chocolate cupcake

Hanging with some cousins & friends

Kiddos & babies galore at Lulu's party

Hip hip hooray for a homemade balloon garland!

Backyard fun at Lulu's party

Lulu was having so much fun.....

....until she wasn't!!

Thanks so much to all who helped us celebrate 365 days of our happy Bug. We are lucky to have you all in our lives.