Nola's First Birthday Celebration

To celebrate Nola turning one, we threw a family birthday party the weekend after her birthday.

My sister, Nancy, wanted to make the cupcakes for the party and decided to make Oreo panda cupcakes and so I decided to theme the party around her choice.
We started the cupcakes the night before the party and were up till 2 in the morning finishing them all.
They turned out very cute but were a lot of work.

Nancy made a special princess panda for the birthday girl.
We decorated with chinese lanterns and origami cranes


Nola started the party out dressed in a pajama shirt of Callie's that worked as a little kimono


We served stirfry veggies, chicken, lo mein noodles, sticky rice, egg rolls, wontons, and potstickers for dinner.
Nola loved the noodles.

While looking for ideas for Nola's party, I came across a first birthday tradition in asian cultures called the "birthday grab". Various items are set out in front of the birthday child and whichever object the child chooses or picks up first represents the childs future career or interests.
We put out a baby to represent motherhood, a CD for music, a ball for athletics, a dollar bill for wealth, stethoscope for medical career, a book for intelligence, stamps which represent a career in public office, a calculator to represent math or accounting, and a pen to represent the arts or writing.
When Nola came out and saw all the objects, she did a great job looking them all over.
Its almost like she knew what she was supposed to do because she walked up and down the line of objects looking at them all before touching anything.
Finally, after careful review, she selected the pen....
and then the book. She held onto the pen for quite awhile too so we may have a future writer in the family. This was such a fun activity and I wish I had done this with all my kids for their first birthdays. All the older kids were really into it and were all cheering her on and trying to guess what she would pick.



After the birthday grab, it was time for presents.
Nola did a pretty good job opening her presents and loved all the surprises inside.


We finished the night with the panda cupcakes.
Nola loved her cupcake and ate it very neatly. She mostly just picked off and ate the oreos and only ate a little bit of the cake. It was a fun party and a great way to celebrate our Nola.