Party, Party, Party!

We had a birthday party for her on Saturday night. I tried to keep it simple: Hello Kitty themed stuff (she love's her "meows"), marinated chicken on the grill, my mom's hot vegetable dish & mandarin orange/strawberry salad (which were both a hit!), rolls, & of course the homemade cake.

Here are a few pictures from the party:

What a difference a year makes...this year she blew out the candles all by herself!

One of her favorite toys...thanks Papa!! :)

She is super excited to open up her gifts...love the smile & eagerness to get it open!

A fun...but noisy guitar! She's had lots of fun "playing" it & dancing to the music already....thanks Aunt Nancy! :)

Had to get a picture of the cake I made for her. It turned out great! Chocolate cake with bavarian cream filling....yum! I used the left over icing I had from my cake decorating class...and decorated this thing in ~15 minutes. I learned a trick to icing the cake without having issues with crumbs....freeze it before icing! Ahhhh...makes life so much easier & less of a hassle. I'll definitely be doing this from now on.