You guys, I just can’t with my daughter…. like I can’t. (I don’t know what that saying actually means but I feel like its perfectly appropriate for how at a loss of words I am with how much I adore this kid…) The last year has quite possibly been the most fun I have ever had around a kid…. mainly cause she is our own and I didn’t really like kids much before I had my own!!! That being said, all I want to do is get EVERY single word and action that comes out of her, documented and it’s SO FREAKING HARD! It’s hard to make a “picture perfect party”, its hard to keep up on my chatbooks and her baby journal and all the blog posts I WISH I was doing to chronicle my kids growing up…. but what I am thankful for is the fact that this time around I just released myself from the pressure of it all, did not freak out when the home video camcorder wasn’t charged and didn’t make a “pinterest perfect” party. I simply bought a bunch of cheap decorations on Amazon, ordered adorable cookies from Anna, ran to costsco and bought all the BBQ fixings (with a call to my mom who had to bring all the toppings for the burgers like onions and lettuce because I forgot them…) and had some fun activities on the lawn for the kids. Let me tell you, IT WAS A BLAST. We had been telling her that her birthday was coming up and she would recite all the different themes that her boy cousins had had for their parties and then say that hers was “Lunicorns”. She was greeted in the morning by balloons in our bedroom which she was quite confused by rather than excited, was given a Unicorn Stuffy that she named Luna and then we prepared the “presents” that she would be handing out to all her friends at her party.

Hastings is seriously one hilarious kid with a little lisp and only 2 days before her birthday started saying her name correctly… queue the mommy tears… her nick name that she has called herself for the last year has STUCK and I refuse to let it go. So “Stee-stee LuLu” you are officially a BIG GIRL now and we love it. She can throw a tantrum but one threat of a timeout or spankin’ and usually she shapes up FAST. She covers her mouth when she laughs and that makes us laugh harder, she says L instead of Y’s which kills me, she plays with Daddy outside EVERY NIGHT rain or shine when he comes home from work and runs to open the door for him. She weighs in at exactly 25 lbs and is still in 2T clothes and 18month pants and shorts haha! Her little bro is sure to catch up to her soon. WHAT.A.YEAR.

I just about died seeing the piñata my mom MADE by hand for her and the cake my sister pulled off even after MOVING and packing up her HOLE house just 2 days prior…. They were AH-MAZING.

We set up little activities for the kids so that hopefully the parents could socialize and actually it worked SO WELL. When I put out the coloring items Hasty sat her stuffs down and kept saying “Mama, I need to color, just a minute mama, I just need to color right now”.

As her friends arrived, everyone SWARMED the Orbeeze. If you don’t know what these are, just trust me and get them for your next party!!! They are UNREAL and so much fun! They come in a teeny little package like poppyseed and then they soak in water and become these gel beads that are a sensory toy for kids to play with! SO FUN!!!!

I only got 1 photo of this (below) but I am so glad I have it. We want to instill being a GIVING and kind person to our kids and so we packaged up the goody bags for the other kids very nicely, filled them with toys and treats and Hasty was told she needed to hand out all her presents to her friends FIRST. The kids loved it and she was very proud of herself. She watched them open then and then those bags were used for the piñata too!

This photo on the left with her hands up is a precious one because when Daddy came around the corner with her last present she exclaimed “A BIIIKKKKEEE I WUV it Mommy and Daddy! I SO LUCKY!” and our hearts melted. She took right off on it and although it’s not pink (wahoo! MOM WIN!) she was very very thrilled it had a basket! (Thanks to Daddy for assembling it!!!)

We love this girl and can’t wait to see what else the Lord has in store for her life!