Three kids and a dog: You are my Sunshine

Caroline turned 1 year old on Saturday June 6th. We had an awesome party with beautiful weather and tons of happy kids! I was so excited to plan an outdoor party that our plan was to have it at McGraw Park here in town which has a small pavilion, a spray water park and playground equipment. So even though Caroline doesn't care at this point about most of that (except for the swings) older cousins/friends would be able to run around in the water or in the dirt and have tons of fun. (thanks to my parents who arrived at the park 3 hours early to reserve the pavilion for us and tell anyone else that they were not invited to our party, in the most polite and courteous way of course)

Our theme was 'You are my Sunshine.' Caroline has a book that we sing along to before naps and bedtime and she will actually sing along with me so I thought it was perfect to include in her party.

She had a shirt made from Etsy, a sun cake that we made and some fun decorations and balloons. I tried very hard to keep it simple since the party would be outside and most of the decorations would be blowing in the wind. The only thing I felt was needed was the month timeline photos that showed how she has changed throughout the year. I saw this on Pinterest and with my sister Emily and Evan's help we were able to make it happen. (Thank you!)

Our sunshine cake turned out awesome! I made her smash cake and then saw that you can take Starburst candies and microwave them for a few seconds until they are soft. You can then roll them out and make any shape that you want. I was so excited about this!

Caroline wasn't so sure about the cold water in the splash park but then she figured out that this was a lot like bath time and she could splash around as much as she liked and even crawl in the water! She quickly changed her mind and decided that this was THE BEST!

Caroline received many awesome gifts but I think her favorite was the orange balloon from Staley. In fact, she could have cared less about all of the gifts that Liam and I were opening on her behalf as long as she could pat and eat the orange balloon!

Evan and I feel so blessed to have Caroline in our family. She is such a happy, fun and sweet girl and we couldn't imagine life without her. We feel even more blessed that both of our families agree and (almost) everyone was able to be there to shower her with love and kisses.

My lovely 1 year old!

(showing me the correct finger for 'I'm one')