Birthday Girl

We celebrated Clara's first birthday on Saturday. The guest of honor was, as usual, on her best behavior, and definitely showed why she's the "apple of our eye." Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate! For those who weren't there, you mostly missed a stampede of small children, a foggy Sunset day, and a volume level that could only be matched by a rock concert.

Joey helped Clara get her party hat on...



Our family of four...






Joey and Megan talked for DAYS beforehand about blowing out these candles:












Finally, Clara got to sample a pink cupcake...

and went back for more!



A bath was definitely in order!

We had 16 miniature guests, all but one age 3 or under!

Gitte, Megan, and Joey enjoy juice boxes:

Gitte relishing cake:

Joey showed off his swing to an adoring crowd, mostly composed of grandparents:



Shawna and Bridget:




The Grochol girls were the first to pose for a big group shot:



Mass chaos ensued when we tried to get everyone in the same picture... this is the best of the bunch, sadly (l-r: Jessica, Megan, Bridget, Joey (holding Bridget), Marco, Katelin (holding Marco), Reese, Ryan, Tommy, Clara, Brooke (walking away from the insanity), Grace, Natalia, and Gitte. Lorelai and Lily missed the photo, unfortunately!)



We also squeezed in a shot of Grandma Cecchin and the four Cecchin cousins:


The childless adult guests watched all of the parents perform their insane antics during the photo shoot, and congratulated each other on not being part of that crowd:

Present time, and lots of pink toys! The big hit was the pink horse from Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jeff, which was assembled by the only semi-handy person in the house, and promptly commandeered by Joey, Megan and Bridget:

Joey and Megan stampeded back and forth from the living room to the dining room, carrying the cheapest, most fun toy of all :)