Jori's first birthday (party)

So...the actual day of Jori's first birthday, June 30th, we were driving home from Wyoming. So she spent six plus hours in the car. Worst birthday ever.

We were going to have her little party the next Saturday, but then ended up going up to Sam's parents for ANOTHER Hatch reunion-just this time, it was Darren (my father in law)'s brothers and their families, instead of just Sam's immediate family.

Then we were going to do it the NEXT Saturday...but it was the Scottish festival that day, and rainy besides, and we were planning a pool party.

So Jori's birthday celebration was three weeks after her actual birthday. Don't tell her... :S yeah, call me the worst mother-of-one ever, go ahead.

We'd been to two different birthday parties for one-year-olds earlier this year, and both were much more elaborate than I was willing to do. Fantastic, but time consuming. I knew Jori wasn't going to remember any of this, so I just wanted to do something she'd actually enjoy that day. And what does she love? Swimming! And children!! So easy choice: we had a swimming party at our friends' condo's pool. They have the coolest setup-they have a normal pool, then a round kiddie pool which was just perfect for the little ones! 

 Basically balloons were our primary decorations. I got some streamers and 2 small banner things...but balloons made everyone plenty happy!

 Kiddie pool!

 Spider crawl. Jori's not quite walking yet-almost! She does this one on hard surfaces, or in a dress. The rest of the time she's on her knees.

 This was before Sam discovered he'd left his phone in his pocket: oops...

 Darren and Loa Lee drove down from Franklin for it. :) What great grandparents!

 Standing, and proud of it!

 She seriously just stood there for like three straight minutes.

 Everyone in my family pitched in and helped with the meal: especially my mom. She did more than I did! I'm very grateful to have the family I do-I was none too eager to prepare everything all by myself!

 Poor Jori missed her first nap-the one she almost never misses. So when it came time for her to dig in...she was much more dainty than expected.

  This was right about where I pulled her out. Barely made a dent! Haha

 Her cousins were far more interested in presents than Jori was herself. She didn't see what all the fuss was about.

 Since I knew it'd be hard for the little ones to watch Jori open all those presents, I got a small one for each of them as their 'party favors.'

 Because it was so far past her nap time, and she was tired (and I think the others were antsy), we decided to just have her open her presents from those in attendance at the party and open her presents from mommy and daddy at home.

 Look at that poor little tear-streaked face. The ride home was rather hard. You got to give it to her for that absolutely perfect frown, though. Five stars.

 After a nap, she opened (and played with) the rest of them. Well...I 

opened  them and tried to get her to be impressed, mainly.

 Yes Jori, that's what we do with trains...right in the mouth babe

That's more like it :)

Thanks everybody!!!

Tee hee, I found that fabulous headband at the dollar store. The longest she kept it on was like half a second.