The Mees Family: Happy Birthday Lauren!

Happy 1st Birthday, Lauren-Lou! No...Lauren's birthday isn't in October :) Just still catching up on our summer pictures. We have SO many pictures of Lauren's birthday. It took me awhile to sort through them all. We took a lot of video instead of pictures, and so I was having to splice through the video frames...that video is a blessing and a curse! Love the sweet moments it captures but not the best for going through frame by frame. The video doesn't seem to post to the blog. Anyway, it was a wonderful birthday celebration for sweetie-pie Lauren. Everyone had a great time watching the birthday girl unwrap presents, demolish a chocolate cake, and demonstrate her new walking skills!

We love you so much, little Lauren! Happy First Birthday to you!

I made a daisy birthday cake. Big Sis Hannah helped pick out the cake pan from Michael's. I had to convince her that Lauren would like the daisy better than Buzz Lightyear :)

Lauren's individual cake

On the morning of her birthday! The house is decorated and we're ready for the party!

Playing with her cell phone, waiting for guests to arrive. If you say "hello", she'll put the phone up to her ear and pretend to talk :)

All dressed up and ready for the party to start!

Unwrapping presents with lots of help from Big Sis and all of the cousins!

A Little People bus! Lauren loves her Little People and also loves things with wheels.

Strawberry Shortcake!


So exciting!

She immediately started reading this Eric Carle book. It remains her favorite book to this day and we read it frequently. It is called "Head to Toe" and has a bunch of animals and actions in it. She loves to do the actions.

Studying her birthday card :)

Modeling her birthday outfit and tutu :)


With her party hat on! This didn't last too long...she wasn't such a big fan of the party hat. But all of the guests were good sports and put them on to help celebrate :)

Big sis Hannah helping blow out the candle. We figured we should keep fire away from the 1-yr-old.

Lauren trying to figure out what this thing is?! She gingerly touched the icing for a minute or two before digging in.

Starting to figure out how to demolish the cake! Still not eating any, though! I think she played with it for a whole 5 minutes without eating any. Amazing!

Chocolate hands!!

I think Grace said it best..."Where did it all go? Half the cake is gone and she hasn't even eaten any!?" Yes, but the floor will probably never be the same...

She actually takes a little nibble!

She makes a funny little face and decides that cake isn't all it's cracked up to be. Apparently she thinks it's more fun as a toy than as a food :) It's funny, because pretty much every "sweet"-type food that I've given her, she has refused. Is it possible that the sweet tooth gene did not transmit to our child?!

Attempts at family picture...

Clapping because she was so excited :)

Here are some pictures of Lauren walking at the end of the party. She really did her first real walking that day. She was so excited to walk from person to person and she was just soaking up all the cheering and clapping. The more steps she took, the more excited she got. It was so cute. And after that day, she just kind of took off and has been walking better and better each day since.