Norah's Birthday! aka "The 4th of July"

In the morning, when Norah awoke, I had filled the living room with tons of balloons, she was a little confused by it all, but so excited!  She played with the balloons constantly for several weeks after her birthday.  She insisted on picking up two at a time, and by the tail end of them, it was funny to watch.

Between my mom and I we must have taken over 100 pictures of Norah on her Special Day.  There were just too many first's that I didn't want to miss.  So crazy how fast time really does fly by!  I have little one year old on my hands, and we couldn't be more grateful for her.

 After opening some books from Grandma, Norah walked around and handed the book to each person in the room until everyone had read her the book.  She likes books!

New Shoes!

Birthday Party Dress, she doesn't look too thrilled ;)

Ben and I bought this play tent/tunnel for Norah several months ago and I was dying to give it to her. It took her a few minutes to get use to the idea of going inside, but once she got in she went through it over and over again; she loves it!

I had planned on making her a big chocolate cupcake for her Birthday, but we had some mini cupcakes leftover from her Birthday Party with Ben's family the night before, so I thought I'd save myself some trouble.  She probably didn't need that much sugar anyway.  She was DELIGHTED to experience her first cupcake.  Gonna have to hide my treats from her now, she knows what she's missing out on :

 We ended Norah's 1st Birthday with a bang!  Ben and I plan on teaching Norah that the Fireworks on the 4th of July are just for her Birthday!  She had fallen asleep on the way to the show but I woke her up so she could get in a few ohhh's and ahhhs, and then she zonked out again on the ride home.  All in all in was a pretty magical day.  Happy Birthday Norah!