Let her eat cake!

After dinner, we got out the cake.  Like I said, Isla ate well and enjoyed her beef and veggies!

Then we got out the cake(s).  In keeping with the theme, I made Pumpkin Buttermilk Bundt Cakes.  I used a smallish bundt pan and put one cake on top of the other to make "pumpkins". I frosted them with a pumpkin cream cheese frosting (yummy! the recipe for the frosting is toward the bottom of the post) and topped them with a marshmallow rolled in cocoa powder and some spinach leaves :).  I forgot to get things for the stem and leaves, so I had to improvise with what I could find at the cabin.

As you can see, I added some leaves from outside to decorate the plate a bit.

There were three cakes in all.

Isla got her own!  She was, clearly, a little skeptical of the whole thing.  We were singing to her during this picture. 

After a few licks of her fingers, she decided it was a-ok! 

She daintily dug in for a few minutes, then decided to try out a different approach! 

Just pick the whole thing up :).

I asked her to give me "high five" so I could get a shot of her sticky fingers. She ate about 1/4 of the cake...not too shabby!  And I think she enjoyed it. 

Party Day Food

All of the food for Isla's birthday had to match the Pumpkin theme.  It had to be orange, pumpkin, pumpkin shaped, or at least "fall" related.  I started by picking out some "appetizer" type foods. 

They included pretzel rods dipped in orange candy melts and sprinkled with green sprinkles.  Yum!

There were some clementines turned Jack-o-Lanterns! 

Lastly for the appetizers, I saw these on Pinterest somewhere, were these "pumpkin" rolls.  They consisted of sun dried tomato wraps, cream cheese, and a basil leaf, held together with green toothpicks.  See?  It looks like a pumpkin!  They were actually a big hit. 

I also had some apple cider (fresh from Greenbluff) on the stove with cinnamon sticks.  On the side were  caramel and whip cream to make Caramel Apple Ciders :). 

Before we sat down for lunch, Miles wanted to show the 'Nother Grandparents around the cabin and down by the lake.  While we were gone, Isla had about 2oz of milk and we came back to this: 

One tuckered birthday girl!  She slept for  about 30min before joining in on lunch and dessert.

Lunch was a hearty stew and pumpkin shaped buttermilk biscuits.  I had thought about doing a pumpkin based soup/stew, but decided against it.  I thought that might be just too much pumpkin!

Everyone enjoyed the meal!  It was a success.  After lunch (which Isla also ate after she woke up...she really liked the beef!) we enjoyed some cake, then presents.  More to come!

Party Planning and Decor

Originally, I had planned to have a girly "tea party" theme for Isla's first birthday.  A few weeks before the party, my mother-in-law suggested that we have it up at the cabin since it would be just us, them, and my parents.  I agreed, but thought that my original theme idea might seem odd at a rustic lake cabin.  I quickly switched gears and went with a pumpkin theme, but was determined to make it as girly as possible.  Since I took over 250 photos, her party will be separated into different posts!

I began with the invitation.  I used a girly "Cinderella-esque" pumpkin stamp and added some glitter glue for pizzaz and determined my color palate to be pink, green, and, of course, orange.

The inside said "What a year, we've had some fun, Our Lil' Pumpkin's turning One!"

I only sent invites to mine and Ben's siblings and our parents, knowing only our parents would be there.

It was a beautiful fall day at the cabin.  The colors up there are just incredible!

The front stoop (decorated by Sara) was even festive!  She and Miles went on a "leaf hunt" to find the leaves to decorate with.

To decorate inside, I made a banner with my color theme and some pink glitter ribbon :), that said "Happy Birthday".

I also picked out pictures from birth through 11months (one for her first few days, then every month thereafter) and put them above an opposite window.

A few weeks ago, I had taken a trip to Goodwill to grab any pumpkin related decor I could find.  This pumpkin was $0.99 and was perfect for a few more pictures!

In keeping true to the theme, I found a bunch of pumpkins, some  from Goodwill, some from Greenbluff, and some from the grocery store, to decorate with.  All of the non-real pumpkins are from Goodwill.

I picked up a fall bouquet from the grocery store and put them in a ceramic pumpkin pot that was also purchased at Goodwill.  I don't think I have a picture of the pot, but it was obviously made for a flower arrangement, so I bought some floral foam and cut it to fit the planter, then pushed the flowers from my bouquet in to it.

An aerial view of all the decor!

And here are just some random shots from the overall, to the details.  As you can see, I also tied pink tulle bows to the chairs.

We put the presents in the bay window to start, so the kids stayed out of them, then moved them into the living room for opening.

This is tulle "skirt" that I made for the high chair.  I now wish I had spread it out more evenly for the picture!

The favors were baby food jars, cleaned and filled with "candy corn" pumpkins, tied with a ribbon, and topped with a piece of card stock cut into a circle and decorated with glitter paint and bejeweled and glittered pumpkin sticker :).

That's it for the decor.  I had fun making the invites, banner, skirt, glittered pumpkins, etc.  I like how all the decor turned out!

Happy Birthday!

I should have posted on Friday, October 21st, but it didn't happen. 

My sweet Isla Penelope turned ONE on October 21st!  I can't believe she is already a year old.  It went by at lightning speed and brings a tear to my eye.   I spent the day hugging her a little tighter, cherishing her  moments as a baby, and reminiscing where I was one year ago today.  In fact, one  year ago today, we were spending our first night at home with our sweet Isla.  And today, we celebrated her birthday with a small, but festive, party.

Apparently Blogger won't upload my pictures for some reason, but I took over 250 pictures and spent the last hours and a half sorting through them and editing a bunch!  Perhaps tomorrow it will cooperate with me and I can begin the posting of the birthday festivities!

Greenbluff Revisited

This past Monday, Maggie wanted to bring Nathan up to Greenbluff.  I wanted to get a few more pumpkins for some projects, some cider, as well as a few pictures of Isla out of the Ergo :), so we agreed to join them.  The boys always have (well, maybe not always...) fun together.  Sometimes they have trouble sharing, especially late in the afternoon, but, ya know, what can you expect from two strong willed four year old boys!

This trip, we went to Walters, which we did not visit as a family.  We headed to their store to find out the best pumpkin patches to hit and the boys got side tracked by the "train".  We had to take it for a ride!

Mostly because the boys wouldn't get off :).  We rode the "train" around the farm a bit then got off in the orchards and walked back to the main part of the farm.

The main part had this wonderful "sand box" full of dried peas.  It was great fun.  There was a toy structure with a wheel, so Miles called that the pirate ship and they sailed to the pea pit to "dig for treasure".  Yes, his imagination is on overdrive all.the.time!

There was also a little animal area with goats, chickens, roosters, sheep, etc.  Isla enjoyed watching them.  Then we headed over to this huge tire swing where the boys had fun.

Isla watched from the Ergo.  I was afraid to let her in the pea pit as it seemed like a major chocking hazard for someone her age, seeing as how she puts everything in her mouth!

Eventually, we wondered to the pumpkin patches and picked some more pumpkins.  Miles and Nathan ran around and played games while Maggie and I searched.

We found this cute little barn/stand past the pumpkin patches and decided it would be the perfect backdrop for some pictures...perhaps for Christmas cards :).

Isla was pretty cooperative.  The sun was pretty much directly in their eyes from this vantage point, so it made it a little tricky.  I thought I got a few cute ones.  Plus, I'm loving the colors!

We tried to get some of the boys together, but they're just too goofy and wouldn't both look the same direction at the same time...imagine that!

I had tried, unsuccessfully, to get a pic of Miles and Isla by the corn husks/hay/barn thing, but that didn't go so well.  So, I stuck them both in the cart and gave them each a pumpkin.  I think the results were pretty good.

I think I may do some more editing of these photos and play around with a few things.  I'll post the newly edited ones if I ever get around to working on them some more :).

And another unsuccessful one of the boys:

After picking pumpkins, we walked back up to the store to pay for them, pick up cider and some other treats.  There were three wooden rocking animals out front, which the boys enjoyed.  There is a rocking cow behind those trees.

It was a beautiful day!  We enjoyed heading up there.  The new pics I got of the kids were well worth the drive.  So was hanging out with Maggie and Nathan for the afternoon!  After the bluff, we went over to Nathan's to play for an hour or so.  The boys always have fun together, though next time we'll be hanging out earlier in the day!