Happy 1st Birthday Halie!

It's officially here, Halie has turned a year!
We celebrated in style with a small party of the four of us at home.
Originally, plans had been made for John and Dannette to go to Gymboree today with Halie to play as part of her birthday celebration but those plans fell through as Halie decided that today was not a day to nap.  In order to prevent certain meltdown, they stuck closer to home.

Dannette in her balloon mound last night after her party prep

Once I got home from work we all celebrated with a brief party complete with more balloons than Halie had ever seen in her life, noise makers, gifts and cake.  The balloons were a fun addition to the party.  Dannette had come up with the idea and went out yesterday to get them and spent all last evening blowing them up. She kept them hidden all day until I came home and when we brought Halie our of her room for the party she was able to be besieged by balloons.

Princess Halie holding court while opening her gifts

 We all were in a good mood and got in the act as well as you can see by the pics of John, the court jester photographer and the video of Dannette with the birthday cake!

A bit unconventional but Halie was so excited to see Tom on her cake!

Evolution of a 1 Year old with Cake

What a dainty bite this neat child took!

Hard to see but she has bits of cake on her forehead and in her hair.

This was just seconds before she tired of the whole cake thing and tossed it in one piece on the floor!

Birthday cake is more difficult to find here than you can imagine but I thought these mini cakes did the job for a first birthday.  It was especially cute to me as John and Halie (ok, really just John) watches Tom and Jerry on Boomerang each morning.  She immediately recognized Jerry and started pointing at him as soon as the cake got close to her.

John getting into the act as the court jester photographer.  He even fancied himself a director as he would yell "Action" and "Cut" while he videoed her birthday!

Pictures and video are far better to express the day so I am keeping this brief in order for you to all enjoy the pics.