My Big Birthday Girl

It's hard to believe my little girl is such a big girl!! We've had a few emotional moments over the last few days as I've felt the urge to tell her her birth story at bedtime and whatnot.
Here's the big girl in the bath this morning. Will asked why you can't see her whole face...I just like the shot.
Here she is post-bath.
For her birthday I dressed her in a little shirt/dress that used to be mine. My Grandma Honora made this outfit for me when I was a wee one. It has matching pants, which were a bit more worn, and also which made my eyes feel a little overloaded with pattern. I love this photo because she's doing so big/so silly.
And then she turned around and gave me a cute smile.
Clara took a morning nap of about 2 hours, and then wouldn't nap this afternoon. I was worried about how she would be, since she was clearly tired, but she did okay. This is us pre-party. Note her cute cowgirl-ish dress and all the pink decor.
I started something new with Clara, which I'll also start with Henry at his next birthday. This is her Birthday Book. I'll pull it out each birthday and have her guests sign it. There's also room to stick cards and photos. Henry is signing it here. He also made Clara a Shrinky Dink and created a card for her.
We tried to space out the present opening, as it becomes overwhelming for a one-year-old. Here she is opening her present from Pete and I. It's a 3 Little Pigs story retelling set. We knew Henry would be excited about it, since he loves that story...and we thought it would encourage them to play together. Aren't we clever?
This is not a great shot of Clara, but her little friend Sebastien is very handsome. It used to be that Sebby would smack Clara every chance he got, and she started to cry when she saw him. He seems to have turned a corner in the last few weeks and now he's all huggy with her. It's adorable. I wish I had gotten to the camera in time!
Bampa tried to help Clara get her boots on....but her little ankles might be a bit too chubby. The party was themed around the boots none-the-less.
Here's Auntie Liz playing with Clara. Dad made Clara a sorting/lacing blocks toy. It's very cute. I think he colored them with food coloring.
This is Henry and Anna sitting at the kid's table. Henry loves black olives, and he had asked for one so I offered one to Anna as well....she may have thought I was offering her a grape, because the next time I turned around the poor little girl was trying to spit it out, but clearly didn't quite know what she should do...until I let her spit it out in my hand. She'll think twice before taking food from me again!
I had to include this photo of Bampa in the cowboy hat.
Here's Clara opening another gift...this one was a little duckie plate and utensil set from Grammie.
And, just when my camera decided it would have a full memory card, here's Clara with her birthday cake. She poked at it a few tentative times, and when I told her to blow out the candle she tried to blow a kiss at it, but then she went at her own piece with some gusto! Hopefully grandparents will share their photos with me so I can share some better ones...
Finally, here's a close-up of the cake. I think it may be my first angel food made entirely by myself. It turned out pretty well. Will wanted to know why there were gaps in the frosting (No, he wasn't here-I was chatting with him earlier and sent him some photos.) I tried to explain that that was the artful dripping effect.
Happy First Birthday to my sweet girl!!!!