McKenna's First Birthday Party!

McKenna got to celebrate her first birthday, almost a month before her real birthday!  What a lucky girl!  We decided to have party, a month early, with our friends and family Georgia before making the move to TX.

McKenna's party was held at East Cobb Park and of course we went with an owl theme!  We found the owl themed tablecloths, cups, plates, etc. all at Wal-Mart!  I couldn't resist such a cute and savvy find!  I made the table decorations myself using the invitations that went with the table wear and tissue paper flowers.  I made a custom invitation for the party on Shutterfly so I didn't need the paper invitations that matched the owl napkins, plates, etc. but I knew I could do something with them!  I ended up hot gluing a pipe cleaner inside the invitation and glued it shut.  I then made a double sided tissue paper flower and stuck the glued invitation in the flower like a place card holder!  I also made huge tissue paper flowers that Deric hung with monofilament on both side of the pavilion.  Deric made the banner that we hung on McKenna's high chair and it turned out soo cute!  I made the owl cupcakes with a basic cake mix, betty crocker icing, oreos, and m&m's.  They were pretty simple but time consuming!  I decided to tackle the smash cake and I'm so glad that I did.  It wasn't perfect looking and clearly made by an amateur but I'm proud to say that I made McKenna's cake!  I even added her favorite, banana puffs, to make owl feathers which I doubt a professional baker would have used!  Once of my favorite decorations unfortunately had to come down because of the spring winds.  I had pictures of McKenna from the last 11 months and had them hung with cute owl and flower clothespins (Michael's dollar spot find) to monofilament from one side of the pavilion to the other.  It was so much fun looking back at pictures of  McKenna and seeing how much that she's grown! 

Although it was a cold morning, McKenna had a great birthday party!  We were so thankful to have had my family there and some of our dearest friends from church and even some of my middle/high school friends!  Unfortunately we did not get as many pictures of everybody that attended as I had hoped.  Deric and I were so busy talking with everyone that we didn't get as many pics like we had planned.  We so appreciate each of you that came and celebrated our amazing gift from God! 

We did get some great pics of McKenna eating her smash cake.  After a few bites, she realized that the icing was delicious and wasn't shy digging in!   I think she recognized the puffs that I put on as the tummy feathers so that helped out.  We haven't given her cake since, but I imagine she's going to love it when she gets it again on her real birthday. 

As I close, I can't forget where we came from and where God is taking us.  So many of you that are reading this or who came to McKenna's party prayed for us to have this sweet little angel.  After going through a miscarriage almost 3 years ago, followed by constant bladder pain (Interstitial Cystitis) all from the miscarriage, I wondered if we would ever be able to try to have a baby again and if would we miscarry again.  I'm so thankful for each of you in our lives that prayed for us, over us, let me cry on your shoulder, and were just there for us.  It is by His grace that we have our McKenna Grace.  Happy birthday to our sweet blessing from above!