Happy Birthday Week Baby! Part 2

Friday Granddad Will joined us and we got to work putting together Evangeline's party on Saturday. We all worked worked on making the decorations come together, and worked on the cake and helped collect food and supplies for the party. Greg, Dad and Danny made her an awesome castle. Greg had been collecting boxes since April. Since the party was storybook themed we thought it fitting to set the stage with a castle.

Greg and Danny build the castle in the garage. 

Dad painting the bricks to put on the castle.

Castle ready for the party in the living room.

Sarah also made the great banner for the castle that said "Happy Birthday" too.

Catie and I moved the castle to the living room and moved the furniture so that the kids could have more space to play.

Evangeline hanging out in her awesome castle.

We also painted a sign to put in the side yard with the names of places from the literary books we read her this year.

Admiring the sign.

You can't have a first birthday without a great cake and my mom made a wonderful cake from scratch. The cake looked like a stack of books and Sarah helped to decorate it. Evangeline was not really into the cake at first but she eventually got into it and got green icing all over her face.

Mom making the book cake

Aunt Sarah making icing

Aunts Sarah and Catie decorating the cake.

Evangeline got several great toys. She recieved a wagon from her Nana Candy, a cozy coupe from her Wiggins Grandparents and a tricycle from Grandpa Jack and G'ma. She also had a great time hanging out with her friends. Below Claire and Evangeline riding in the wagon in the back yard. Can you tell they liked it?

Evangeline and Claire

James the dinosaur and his Hermine Mommy Brenda

Greg cuts the cake

Evangeline opens a few of her gifts

She loved her books

Playing with Claire

Hanging out with Kai.

We all had a great time. I could not have done it without all the family's support. I have to say this is was one of the best parties I have ever attended and I actually got to enjoy it because of all the help. I am so glad that my family came to help. I was so proud of Evangeline for growing so well over her first year, and also to Greg for being her parent too. Thank you to all who came out to celebrate with us.

I'll leave you with this.

Evangeline eats her cake.

Update=Miss P's Room

We're at 32 weeks but I forgot to Post this photo, mainly because Greg and I have been so busy. He's going to start class on Monday (busy day 10 a.m. till 6 p.m.) Luckily we are walking distance from the university, sadly this means Mondays will be pretty lonely until Miss P gets here. We are less than two months from our due date. Everything looks great. I have to re-do my prenatal blood work because my DC OB office had not sent over my medical records yet as of last week.

Friday I also went to physical therapy for my mid back pain. My new doctor has a physical therapist in house. She was able to almost instantly alleviate my pain with certain stretching exercises. I also joined the local recreation center for the next week so I can use the pool. It helps get the weight off my body (at this point I'm carrying around close to 40 pounds more than I weighed pre-pregnancy).

Here are a few photos of what Miss P's room looks like so far. We got the crib and bedding before my trip to Texas. My mother-in-law, grandmother-in-law and sister-in-law got together for this purchase.
I'm working on a mural in the room based off of a journal I purchased from Urban Outfitters in the spring. I've made a little progress on it but I still have to paint it on another wall. It includes yellow vines and blue birds. I also have blue birds coming for the bird cage in the corner (which remains from our wedding decorations). More updates to come!