impromptu moments

one thing that jeremiah and i try to be good at as parents is instilling life into our daughter. this means to be crazy and silly for her even if people are around. to not worry about messes and getting dirty or even eating some dirt. to constantly laugh and play and read the same book 15 times if that is what she wants to do. i cannot say that i am perfect at this all the time, but i really do try to be.

that said, today we had one of those great, unplanned moments in our backyard. while the three of us were playing out there, i decided to try and soak our grass...it has been such a warm winter that our grass has sort of taken a beating the last few weeks..clémence was curious about the hose in the grass and so we took her tights off and just let her go for it. she had so much fun stomping her feet and playing with the water!



this one above is my new favorite pic. it's so perfect.



all dry and ready for a story with daddy.



clémence's first birthday!

it finally came! it was such a whirlwind of planning and handmaking things for the few months prior that when it was the actual day, it was so nice to just be able to relax and celebrate our beautiful daughter and the most incredible year for jeremiah and i. it was a french soiree that included a grilled cheese bar, mimosas, lemon rosemary cookies and madeleines, a photobooth with disguises, an awesome (if i do say so myself) and handpicked french 1960's pop music playlist, and the closest and most incredible 50 people in our life!

we asked a family friend (who also happens to be a great photographer...lucky us!) if she would be so kind as to take photographs that day so i wouldn't have to worry about catching everything and actually just BE in all those moments. you will have to forgive me for the amount of pictures that are to follow...there were so many good ones that it was hard for me to narrow them down!

the birthday girl!!

                                                             
                                                                   photobooth fun!

cake time!

crawling is for the birds!!

our little in-flight model!

the children's museum of phoenix is featured in this month's u.s. airways in-flight magazine and clémence is one of the models in the ad! she was 6 months old when they had the photo shoot but how fun that she is international! so if you are flying this month check out our babe!!

first birthday invitations

i am sorry for my lack of posts lately.  the birthday party is only one week away and i have been so busy making everything for it. since the invitations are well out by now, i wanted to share them on the blog.

i feel like invitations are a very important part of a party or event that sometimes get overlooked or are thought of as a minor detail, but to me they are the only window into what the party will be like for the person receiving it. they are the first impression if you will. so after looking and looking for ideas, i was so excited when i came across the confetti popper invitation here on one of the blogs i follow and love. it was fun and exciting, super clever, and a total surprise to the one receiving it...perfect for her first birthday! and i love taking an idea from someone and totally making it my own and i am so happy with how they turned out...

the blog gives you the free printable labels along with instructions
on how to disassemble the poppers, but since her party is
french themed, i thought it would be fun to have the french
translation on everything so we added that!

i hand made the confetti with a 3-hole punch so it would match
the cardstock of the invite, but added the glitter paper and
and sparkle embroidery floss to make it extra fun!

here is the flip side in french (and sorry about the white square but i
didn't really want my address on the internet)

and this picture is just to give you an idea of the process! since i could really only work on them during naptimes
and in the evening, these probably took me about a month to make! But soooo worth it to me!