Happy 1st Birthday G.E

G.E’s 1st birthday went very well I have to say. I so stressed out more than necessary.  Daddy and I ended up inviting our close friends and family over for a cook-out and made her first party a very casual affair given that 99% of the kids invited are under 9 months old. It was 80+ degrees out so we decided to have a kiddie pool for all the babies interested. G.E loved the pool!! That is her and her friend Camillo. She is so helpful, Isn't She?  Dad’s grilled chicken was a hit (sorry he will not share the recipe with me) and so was my mac and cheese and cold pasta salad. We also had hamburgers, hot dogs, corn, bake beans, watermelon, and of course cake! A ton of food! G.E only had one flipping out moment in the beginning, but the pool solved that very fast.  We had a late start cooking as well. We underestimated the time it would take to finish all the food (I blame Daddy for that estimate), but all in all it went great! G.E had a great time with everyone and that is all that matters. That's her with her smash cake in the "after swimming outfit!

Such a diva! She had 3 outfit changes (Party Dress, Swimsuit, and After swimming outfit! :)

Of course I couldn’t end today without sharing a recipe...  Because we celebrated G.E’s birthday on the weekend before the actual day, it still felt necessary to do something the day of. So we baked cupcakes.  I wanted to try a fresh strawberry buttercream that was simple and also looked good (I don’t like recipes with no pictures). Using fresh strawberries will require A LOT of sugar so don’t be alarmed, it will not be “too sweet”, less sugar will make the buttercream runny.  After hours of searching for something simple and good looking, I found a blog and immediately fell in love with the pictures! (I did add more sugar than recommended. I had very juicy strawberries). It was sooo yummy!! G.E even inhaled 2 cupcakes in a matter of seconds.  Please visit this wonderful blog for the recipe!! Try it and tell her and I what you think! Strawberry Buttercream

Talk to you again very soon!

Technology is NOT my BFF

OFFICIALLY OFF TECH STRIKE

Now that I am over my first major tech crisis of my hard drive crashing and losing a ton of G.E’s first 10 months of life I am back!! (Smile). Thankfully, I have family and friends that are just as camera happy as I am and was able to get a lot of replacements. I thought I would never say this but thank the tech Gods for Facebook and all the pics I had uploaded to share with family as well. While I had the super cute ones printed there were a lot (hundreds) that hadn’t made the cut, but still loved.  What came of all this... I now have downloaded/use Flickr (an online photo album). It’s the only solution I can think of (CD’S get scratched and lost, hard drives crash, photos get damaged or lost).  I also wonder why I take soooooo many pics. Half will never get a second look. What do you all use to protect your little ones pics?