Elsa turned 1 on 7/16. It is truly amazing what can happen in a year! In a mere 365 days, my Girl Elsa has gone from a tiny little helpless bundle to a walking, babbling, curiously independent little girl. This blows my mind!

We had a Birthday cookout for her, complete with brats, potato salad, fruit salad, baked beans and CAKE!!! We invited our Family and Friends and made a great afternoon of it.

Elsa was a good helper during the preparations. Here we are making potato salad.

I found this cake over at Wisk Kid WAY back when Elsa was just a brand new girl. I decided the second that I saw it that it was the perfect cake to commemorate the first year of my Girls life. This cake is delicious. You should make it.

Here is the cake, all dolled up and ready for the party. My frosting didn’t come together as well as I would have liked it to, but it tasted pretty dang good!

My homie, M. Stewart helped me make these tissue paper pom-poms. Big shout out to my other Lady, K. Johnson for her help putting these things together as well. Doing crafty crafts with your friends is always a “good thing”.

I fashioned this Birthday Banner out of some fabric that I had left over from Elsa’s bird mobile. You can learn more about that little project here.

To accompany our brats, I soaked some red cabbage in some apple cider vinegar and salt overnight. It is a perfect alternative to sour kraut and adds a beautiful pop of color to any table.

Elsa loves raspberry jelly sandwiches. I thought it appropriate that they be part of our spread. They were a big hit!

We had been practicing how to blow out birthday candles in the days leading up to the party. Unfortunately, we never practiced on a real cake with a real candle. Elsa wasn’t exactly sure what she needed to do at this stage in the game. I helped her out and we got though it unscathed!

Here is an inside look at that 6 layer birthday cake.

So that is it! One year down, many, many, many more to look forward to!

Thank you to ALL of our Family and Friends for being so generous with your time and love during Elsa’s first year!

We are a lucky, lucky bunch to have you all in our lives!