Thank you

I wanted to take a minute to post a belated thank you to everyone who came to Edie's first birthday party. We had such a great time and it meant so much to us that everyone was there. I asked for no presents, but was particularly surprised by how many thoughtful, adorable and often hand crafted gifts Edie received anyways. Thank you thank you thank you!

And now a few photos of this well documented event. First up is Edie eating beans with Grandma and Grandpa Bruton:
Maurice was a hot item at the party and allowed himself to be pet and chased by all the toddlers. Edie's friend Alison was particularly fond of him:
How priceless is this picture of Reid being held by Katherine (who flew all the way up from LA to visit in time for the party):
Or what about these ones of Edie and Reid together? They were blurrier than I first thought, but they still make me squeal from cuteness. Edie's patting his head!


Edie's individual cake:Singing and waiting for cake smashing to ensue:
Amy showing Edie how it's done in the background. The sheet cake I made for the guests in the foreground. Now I'm just going to pull this soap box out and stand on it for a minute so that I can urge you to try this chocolate buttermilk cake recipe. Because it was perhaps the best chocolate cake I've ever eaten. And I made it from scratch! And it wasn't very hard! I'm not going to try and say I invented the recipe or anything, so I'm mostly taking credit for following directions well, but I'll post the recipe shortly and again, I urge you to bake it. Because seriously. This cake was GOOD.
Edie feeding her leftovers to Aunt Kathleen:
Enjoying the crumbs.
Trying to feed the crumbs to Reid and her other friend Chloe snuggling in the background:
Edie's friend Mae who turned 1 three days later. Amy posing with Edie and the amazingly cute hand sewn strawberry pillows that she made. These are now displayed at the base of her nursery curtains and Edie devotes many afternoons to carrying them from one end of the room to the other. Please also note the beautiful quilt they are sitting on that Grandma Culver made just for Edie's birthday. Oh, and the white bear Edie is clutching is from Uncle Javi's family in Spain that and has developed a deep attachment to him in the last week.
I can't tell if this photo is animated or totally crazy. I'm leaning towards crazy. But these are the adorable and funny "tickle monster" gloves from Great Aunt Wendy.
And the quirky castle themed hand puppets from Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Javi:
And so many great board books to add to our collection.
Edie hamming it up with Grandma Culver with the quilt she made (please try not to look at my face):
So this doesn't even begin to capture the sweet clothes from Jessie, Darrah and Matt, Kathleen, Heidi O, or the perfect wooden blocks from my parents that include illustrations of the letters in American Sign Language, the generous gifts of "college money" from various family members (you know who you are), her first set of toddler friendly crayons and hipster picture books from Katherine, and wow, the list could go on.

Edie is so lucky to have people that love her this much and Jeff and I are grateful for all of you (including those who followed directions and didn't bring presents).