Lila's Birthday Party

We celebrated Miss Lila's birth this past Saturday and had so much fun. We decided to have her party at home and chose a safari animal theme with a mostly hot pink and zebra flare. The guests were greeted with a welcome note...

and truer words were never spoken. Our house is quite the zoo on any given day, but especially this weekend!

I took a play out of my friend Carole's book, and ordered a few things from Etsy for Lila's party. This "Happy 1st Birthday Lila!" banner was my first purchase. It was just so perfect, I couldn't resist.

We served pink lemonade (Jungle Juice) and bottled water with special Happy Birthday Lila labels on them. They were so cute! They even had ingredients on the back for the birthday girl like 100% love, 100% cuddles, etc. Love it.

The food was all safari related. We had Bear Bites (mini corn dogs), Safari Sandwiches (ham and turkey), Tropical fruit and Cheetah Chips (natural cheetos).

I would not have been able to pull off the party without my supporting cast. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Right before the fun began we tried to get a quick fam pic. I knew that this would not happen after the party began. Miss Madison didn't so much see it my way, though, and did everything she could to leap out of Jared's arms.

So instead of fighting her, we just obliged her with this picture!

The kiddos got animal crackers as their party favors...

and also got to enjoy this delicious mexican chocolate and white cake from a local bakery in Murphy. Love Annie's Bakery!

Meme was the only great-grandparent in attendance and we were so happy that she was here.

Miss Karlie was our first guest--Jackson was busy watching The Jungle Book and could not be bothered to smile. The kid loves a good movie.

While waiting for her friends to arrive, the birthday girl played with Meme.

After everyone got here we all had some lunch. Here's a group shot of the kids in our kitchen. I blew up pictures of Lila, one for every month of her life, and hung them up on the shutters. It is truly amazing to see her transformation in the past year and was fun to remember all of those early days!

It was a really warm day and perfect for playing outside, so Daddo and his brothers played a little soccer.

Lila and Brooklynn preferred to play in her new pink car inside instead. After I told her about the cool party going on outside, though, we headed out there.

We found the Hays fam first...

and then walked over to the swingset where lots of little monkeys were hanging out.

The two youngest kiddos didn't do too much swinging, but they sure looked cute.

Baby Henry couldn't get enough of the big swing, though! He was all smiles when I told him it was time to in for cake and ice cream.

Jackson was definitely the sweatiest kid around and needed some water to cool down. Aren't those labels just the cutest?!

We played pin the nose on the lion and although J wore the requisite green sunglasses, he yelled "I can see out the bottom!"

Chloe refused the glasses (hey, who can blame her since they'd just been on J's sweaty head?) and opted for her mom's hand-blindfold instead.

Maddie went the double sunglasses route and what do you know, all three got the nose in the exact right spot!

After the super-quick game it was time for the cake. Lila was a bit apprehensive about things at first. Madison and Jackson both jumped up and blew out her candle...

and then I set her down to see what she would do with her very own cupcake.

After feeling the icing for a few seconds, she decided that it was safe and just went for it!

Shoveling cake and icing in her mouth as fast as possible was her only goal.

"Oh birthday cake, how I love thee."

"This is so fun, guys!"

After getting cleaned up and most of the icing washed off of her, Uncle Andrew fed her some ice cream--another Lila fave.

And then it was time for presents. She got three really cute swimsuits including this fun animal print one.

Even though there were lots of presents, she did great and just crawled around amongst all the wrapping.

Her two assistants were helping out so well and bringing us more presents left and right.

Like this cool Bee Bop Band.

Afterwards she hung out with Sawyer and Henry and little bit more...

but then decided to take another ride in her coupe.

Happy Birthday sweet girl! We love you more than you will ever know.