It’s fun to be ONE!

As I sit in my parents’ family room basking in the glow of the Christmas tree and the quiet of nap time, it occurs to me that we never actually got around to blogging about some pretty important milestones in our family.  Between birthdays, holidays, personnel changes at work and the craze that is being a secondary choir teacher at the holidays the Jr. Wilhoits have barely had time to come up for air.  So without further apology - here are some fun memories from the last few months.  First up, Eila turned ONE!

Since NomiAnn and Papa Kay came all the way from the Midwest for the occasion, I naturally welcomed them with a full day of running errands on the day off I took from school.  Naomi Ann made sure the day was special by providing a super cute outfit for the occasion.  

All ruffled up and ready for a day of running errands!

A gal’s gotta’ eat.  NomiAnn usually requests at least one Teriyaki meal per visit.  Eila even met a birthday buddy at the table next to ours!

Having raided all the stores on our list, it was home to start final preparations.  We spend quite a bit of time going through the Very Hungry Caterpillar and recreating as many of the foods as we could for the party.  

Looks like a tiny cherry pie to me!

A birthday girl can’t be all about work.  Papa Kay never hesitates to stoop to enjoy Eila on her own level.  

Finally, the long awaited day arrived and we were able to put all of our hours of preparation to use.  Adam felt it only appropriate that Eila’s birthday festivities begin with a special birthday breakfast trip to Burger King with Papa Kay.  Papa Kay gave a good lesson to both Adam and Eila on the finer intricacies of ordering eggs.

Eila and her crown from Auntie Aunt Kay

A crown for the princess.  A gal gets to enjoy her jewelry.

Eila and Papa Kay sneak in a snuggle during party preparations.

While we love our little home - it certainly doesn’t lend itself easily to entertaining large groups of people - so we opted to bring the festivities downstairs to one of the meeting rooms in the Puyallup Activity Center.  It’s a good thing we didn’t need to go too far, or we may have needed to load an ark instead of our wagon.  Rain poured down steadily all day long, but we did our best to make things cheerfully cozy inside.  I apologize for the lack of/quality of the photographs.  I simply didn’t have time to go around and take good pictures of many details.  Lots will just need to live in our fun memories.  

In case you haven’t gathered, yet, Eila Kay’s theme was centered around Eric Carle’s Very Hungry Caterpillar children’s book classic.  

On Monday he ate through one apple but he was still hungry.

On Tuesday he ate through two pears, but he was still hungry.

The little ladies meet-up!  This was Eila’s first time meeting sweet little Dominique who was born about 6 months ago to Mike and Euneka.

Oma entertains the masses with her Eila antics.

Beautiful Kristin says hello to our little caterpillar with another crawly toy.

At last it was the much anticipated cake time.  In an attempt to keep things at least slightly simpler, we opted for a store a store bought “smash” cake.  

Just pretend like the candle was lit...the Activity Center said lit flame was a no-go.

A little taste test.

I don’t know about this...

A little less than enthusiastic...

So it turns out that Eila hasn’t been hankering for her sugar rush for the last twelve months.  I’m sure her sweet tooth will take over soon enough.  Perhaps we should be grateful for at least one sugar-rush-less birthday.  

Thankfully, Eila was much more excited to see her “peeps” at her party.  

Nate and Val came down from Seattle and brought half the grocery store with them.  

Oma and Opa paddled all the way from Anacortes to celebrate our special girl. If you look closely, behind the Wilhoits you’ll see most of Eila’s once a month pictures.  It made for a nice, long, and unique caterpillar decoration.   

After the party, Eila turned into a little pumpkin who needed to nap while the rest of us relaxed and recovered for a while.  Afterwards Oma, Opa, NomiAnn, and Papa Kay all took us out to dinner at Steamers in Tacoma for some fish and chips.  A perfect end to a perfect day.

An early morning tutoring session before church.  

NomiAnn worked really hard to make this beautiful hungry caterpillar dress for our sweet little lady.  Unfortunately, we should have put a greater emphasis on the “little” part of that word since Eila is still working towards wearing clothes worn by more average one-year-olds.  So, while NomiAnn didn’t feel it “party” ready - I insisted that she wear it for church the next morning.  She received SO many compliments all morning, and as you can see, felt quite at home in its colorful cuddliness.  

The spoils of war...and/or the goodies acquired at a perfect one-year old birthday party.