A (first) Year in the Life of the Mini

Arg, so far behind.  Oh life, what have you done to me?  It has been very, very busy indeed, and my need to write every single detail is not much help when it comes to doing blogs.  Well, maybe it's been long enough that I can blaze through a bunch of these without quite so much detail?  We shall see...

So, starting from where I left off, the Mini turned 1 on October 18th!  It was a Sunday, and we'd planned to hold a big bash for her that same day...but then our church was celebrating its 135th anniversary that same day, and since most of our invitees were from church, we ended up holding a party for her the following Saturday, on the 24th.

But here she is on her Official First Birthday:

And no, I did not prompt that little '#1' finger.  I think it's kinda awesome that I got that shot.  :D

I gave her a #1 pancake for breakfast that day too.  It looked more like a fish than a 1, but I don't think she cared.

But on to the party!  Since the Mini is our very Busy Little Bee, that naturally became the theme for the day.  To that end, I made a beehive cake with little bee cupcakes...

...a scrapbook of her first year for friends to look at, filled with little bee and flower stickers between the pictures...

...and a spread of 'B' or 'bee' related things, such as HONEYdew melon, Bowtie pasta with Broccoli, Buttered Beans, and yellow and black candies.  I also made little Bee party favors with treats inside out of toilet paper rolls, yellow duct tape, and black electric tape.  And then I forgot to take a picture of ANY of it.  Ah well, life goes on.

I also once again reveled in the fact that my girls' b-days come so soon before Halloween and there are costumes galore to be had.  The Mini wore a little bee dress for her party.  It was a bit large on her, but that didn't stop her for a moment.  She was everywhere at once and had a grand time.    

When present time came (after lunch but before cake, as we are learning just works better in general), the Mini figured out that wrapping paper QUICK.  Some of the packages still took a while, but she pulled and tugged and had a great time.

And then came the cake.  As with the Munch on her first birthday, we removed the special dress for this time...especially since there was sooo much black frosting.

There was so very, very much frosting and the Mini enjoyed it so very, very much...that I was cleaning it out of her ear for the next 2 days.  I kid you not.

So all in all, she had an excellent birthday.  And she's done much since then...But before I go, I'll just leave these little comparison pictures:

The Mini:  Birth and 1 year

The Munch:  Birth and 1 year

So very different from each other...and yet so very alike.  I am finding this a fascinating journey as I watch the two of them grow.