Wednesday, February 29, 2012

(Lady)Buggin’ Out: Olivia’s First Birthday Party

The McHusband and I went to Statesville last Saturday for Olivia’s first birthday party.  I was in charge of the cupcakes, and I also made some Biscoff Blondies.

All the treats packed up the night before.

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When we got to the house, it was decked out for the ladybug-themed party.  Check out the super cute birthday banner my mom made.

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Photo-rific flower arrangement.

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Mom and Shannon put a picture of Olivia at the center of each flower.

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Time for treats!

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I originally planned to make little fondant ladybugs to decorate the cupcakes, but a party store came to the rescue with 15-cent ladybug toppers.

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Because I’d been looking for an excuse to make them and because it’s always nice to have a little variety in the sweets selection, I made these Biscoff Blondies.

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Have you guys heard of or tried Biscoff yet?  It is uh-mazing.  Seriously, I could eat the whole jar one spoonful at a time.  And I just saw that there’s also a crunchy version with little bits of the cookies in it.  Seriously?!

Okay, enough drooling over the Biscoff, back to the party and the birthday girl.

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Calvin’s mom got Owen this guitar – or gee-tar as Owen called it – and he was having a blast putting on a one-man-show for all of us.

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Bri, Lyla, and Maxie came for the party, of course.  We spent some time playing before opening presents and having cupcakes.

Maxie was just saying a very hands-on hey.

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Time for presents!

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I was writing down who gave Olivia what. 

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We gave Olivia a baby doll and stroller and some clothes.  Olivia immediately hugged the baby to her chest – it was so cute.

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Flyby!

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With the presents done, we moved on to my favorite part of any birthday party – cake!  Well, cupcakes in this case.

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I should’ve just piped some frosting into a cupcake liner.

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And not just for Olivia.  These are Owen’s and Lyla’s cupcakes.

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Speaking of those two…  They were playing with Gena in the cardboard house.

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While everyone else who was still hanging around was gathered in the – where else? – kitchen.

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It was a very nice afternoon spent celebrating Olivia’s birthday.

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But the McHusband and I weren’t done with the celebrations just yet.  From Shannon’s house, we headed to Concord to meet up with the McInlaws for dinner at Texas Land and Cattle for the McMom’s birthday, which was on the 24th.  We had a leisurely dinner and enjoyed the complimentary birthday brownie sundae with Blue Bell ice cream.  (Speaking of Blue Bell, our area is finally getting it in stores in March, yay!)

So it was a busy Saturday the 18th for us but for the best reasons.  Hopefully our next visits with everyone’ll be a little longer (but still involve good food).

(Oh, the strawberry cupcakes were a new recipe and they were quite good, contrary to how Owen, Lyla, and Olivia made it look by leaving their naked cupcakes behind.)

Enjoy your 29th day of February!

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