Happy birthday (party), Rose!

Oh, blog, how I have missed thee! I can't believe how long it's been since I last had a chance to post an update. I blame the craziness of last-minute birthday planning, international travel (!), craziness at work, and a temporary incompatibility between Firefox and Blogger which left me unable to upload photos for a couple weeks. So, without further ado, here's a little update - with pictures!

Rose's birthday was on April 22nd (a Monday), but we postponed her birthday until the following Sunday so my parents wouldn't have to come out for two consecutive weekends (since they were planning to take care of Rose the week of the 29th - more on that in an upcoming post!). It turned out to be very good planning since the weather on the 21st was gross (snow!) and we were all sick in the house, whereas the weather on the 28th was lovely! Here are some photos from Rose's wonderful birthday party. Thank you to everyone who was able to attend, and thanks to everyone else who sent cards/gifts - I promise to send real thank you cards out as soon as I can!

Saturday I stayed up late to decorate. As you can see, we had a little ladybug theme. 

The highlight, IMHO, was the photo collage I made of Rose's weekly portraits!

The weather was perfect - basically the first nice day of the year.

Rose didn't know what to make of eating outside!

We're a little short on outdoor furniture, so we made do. :)

My cousin Ben and his wife Heather were even in town for the party!

Me and the birthday girl :)

Rose did not like her first bite of cupcake!

But she quickly came to her senses and gobbled it up.

Mmmm, chocolate cupcake and milk. Yum!

Rose gots lots of time with her grandparents.

All of her grandparents!

She got lots of fun gifts.

And her cousins help her to play with all her new toys!

Happy birthday, Rose! Can't wait to see what adventures the coming year brings. I love you!