Times Like These

Aly's 1st Birthday Extravaganza Click on the above image for Aly's 1st Birthday Album

Our hearts couldn't help but melt at the sight of our Princess on her 1st Birthday. As I've mentioned before, where does time go? This life that God created with His very own hands has been passed on to ours and for the past year, she has formed and manifested in to her very own little person. She's a sweetheart through and through and ever so loving with Mama and Daddy. Although, beware of the spunkiness lurking below the surface. We can tell she has a "No-Nonsense" attitude to her and when she matures into a young lady, we're sure we'll be needing stress-reducing meds. We could definitely be wrong because only God knows for sure what lies in each of our paths for the future. By golly, I hope we're wrong because I can never remember when to take my medicine.

And here we are... It's official, our precious small wonder is 1 and although she is still and will always be a bundle of joy, our little bundle now moves via crawling and walking and wiggling and rolling. She's no longer the tiny swaddled newborn who hardly made a sound (or move) and who only cried when hungry. Now, she's found her voice and has her own opinion about things. Of course she doesn't SAY the actual opinion (uh, Hello!), she will sound off if not to her liking. Hmmm... sounds familiar, but can't quite put my finger on it.

And now her celebration is done and what a success it was. Let me share with you exactly how wonderfully magnificent our God is. We prayed for awesome weather, to be able to reserve the park for ourselves, and smooth sailing all the way through. We prayed, He delivered! He is beyond awesome and any child of His can attest to this testimony. Here's how it went down:

The day before was sweltering for supposed Autumn weather. A sweaty 97 degrees in L.A. County (Hacienda Heights to be exact). The day after was another sweat under the collar type of day. Yesterday, brrrrr.... Overcast and Chilly Willy toes. Saturday, the day of the Luau Party, a cool, sunny, with gentle and lightly blown whispers in the wind, 84 degrees. WooWoo!! God is sooooooo Good!!! And since it was perfect weather, we thought we would have to stand our ground and put-up our dukes (not literally) to anyone who wanted to sneak in and take the park away from us. Oh such little faith! Not a soul (or party-planning-parent) to be seen. In case you feel like rolling your eyes and thinking we're out of our minds-selfish people; this park is popular for children's parties. There are streamers, balloons, and dare I say, clowns almost every weekend at this coveted piece of L.A. County property. And since it's a "first come, first serve" type of deal, we needed assurance that this was ours for the taking. So what did any first-time parent do for their 1 year old? Spend the night in the car on the park's parking lot of course. Daddy would do anything for his beauty! Hey.... you would too! Again, oh such little faith!

Small sacrifice because what a success this Luau turned out to be. Fun, food, family and friends. Recipe for a WooWoo time!! A big "shout-out" (yeah, I still have a bit of the 90's in me) to our family and friends who helped out and made this all possible for our 1 year old celebrant. They did such a fantastic job in helping set-up, tear-down, serve and sacrifice their time and $$$ (cha-ching, chedda', dough, etc.) for our little family. Times like these well up tears in my eyes. Yes, I'm a sappy mess!!

Click on the photo above and check out Aly's Birthday Extravaganza Album. Enjoy!

*Blow kisses****

~Paola

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