Flashback Friday...I wasn't kidding!

Oh, no, dear friends...all four of you that read my blog...I wasn't kidding. See? Even though you only got one measly post this week...see below for excuses...I am following through on my "Flashback Friday" promise. That said, I am an embarrassment to my fellow bloggers. I never posted pictures from Caroline's birthday. Oops. I have no idea how time flies by ever so fast and January becomes May, but it does. So here's a little something I put together from Caroline's birthday party.

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You might remember that last year we had a fabulous First Birthday Party/Baby Shower for Miss Caroline on her birthday. The only problem was my girlie was still in China. Ohhhhh, that was a tough day. Birthdays are a big deal in our house, and I wasn't too keen on missing her first one. I was excited about the party that night, but I kept fighting back tears all day. Silly me...God had a great surprise in store that day. My friend, Jaima, had stopped by and, as I was walking her out, I checked the mail. And what was in that mailbox reminded me that love never fails. What was in that mailbox was our renewed I-171H...a most unofficial, unimpressive, yet highly valuable, piece of paper...THE piece of paper we needed to travel with our group. We were down to the wire. God could have delivered that piece of paper any other day, but He chose Caroline's birthday. And the rest of my day was equally special. My sweet friends and family threw a big ol' party at the local Chinese restaurant, and the atmosphere was bathed in anticipation of this child soon to be in our midst.

Last year, the girls and I were the ones blowing out her candle...

So this year, we thought it appropriate to have a do-over, this time with an "Asian Elmo" theme. Once again, we took over the Super China Buffet and had quite the wild time! With it being a family party this time, we pretty much trashed the joint! Caroline was the queen of the ball and held court while all the kids crowded in around her to open presents. She handled the audience participation quite well and managed to open nearly all of her gifts all by herself! The kids were so sweet with her, telling her which gifts were theirs and helping her if she had trouble opening something. She, on the other hand, wasn't afraid to tell them to back off if they got too involved! It was rather funny, really.

Caroline's First Birthday Party in China

Something funny to share...I had this vision of a little Elmo figure standing outside a Chinese pagoda. I searched high and low for ideas on how to make a Chinese pagoda cake...no luck. I couldn't find any Elmo cake ideas to which I could easily give an Asian flair, either. So I finally decided to make my own cake topper of sorts and just order a plain sheet cake from Wal*Mart. Wouldn't you know, when I went to order the cake, it took trips to TWO Wal*Mart stores to get the job done. Then, I kid you not, they said that I couldn't get the free individual birthday cake for my child if my sheet cake didn't actually say "Happy Birthday". I planned on decorating the cake myself, so I didn't want any writing on it. It took approval from TWO managers to get what I wanted. Yeah.

Our girls have grown so much in one short year...

A couple of notes about the photos...the one of Caroline blowing out her candle is about the tenth time around. We lit the candle on both her big cake and her little cake for pictures, and she had a grand time asking to do it "adin" and again. The funniest part, though, was when, as she was puffing away for the umpteenth time, with little or no air directed at the candle, Abby sauntered by, leaned over to blow the candle out over Caroline's head, and kept walking. That is SO Abby! And you really need sound effects for the photo of her pushing her stroller around the restaurant's buffet...complete with the obnoxiousness of her bright pink squeaky shoes from China!

And now I must rest, but this weekend I'll post some pictures of our Friday evening guests. And, yes, that is my excuse for not blogging much this week. If you could have seen the "before" pictures of my house, you'd understand. It's been a crazy week of cleaning and desperately trying to finish all those little projects around the house that you put off until company comes. It didn't all get done, but it looks a lot better than it did around here. Hmmm...come to think of it, I'd better go take a picture of THAT!