Chloe's doggie birthday

Chloe loves dogs, as I've mentioned before, so I went with a very simple 2-layer round cake and decorated it to look like a dog. She loved it!

I didn't know if it would be enough cake for everyone, so I made half a batch of doggie cupcakes too. She went nuts over these!

I've always wanted to learn how to make big tissue paper balls, so I looked it up online (they're really easy, but they use a lot more tissue paper than I realized) and decorated the dining room with a few of these instead of the usual streamers.

First we had a quick dinner of hot dogs, grapes and chips (her favorite foods) at the park (her favorite place). As soon as we got out of the car, she yelled, "Slide!"

Cute straws!

 Then she went down her favorite slide! Wee!

She loved playing with all the big kids.

 Scary! Someone took down the "Do not climb" sign, so it's safe, right?

It's easy for them to climb onto this castle from the big dragon. 

But for the first time, Spencer climbed to the top of the other castle by putting his feet and fingers into the little cracks, like rock climbing. He saw a dodge ball on it and wanted to get it. He was very pleased with himself!

We gave Chloe her first birthday present at the park: a pink tricycle from Dave's mom! It's just the right size, and she loves it!

When it started to get dark and cold, we came home and had the rest of her party. My family all came over for cake and presents. We thought the dog needed a bow. 

She was so excited about the birthday song and blowing out the candles. She knew just what to do. In fact she blew them out so fast we had to relight them so I could get a picture.

She was getting pretty tired by this point (outright refused to open one of the presents), but then she got a second wind and loved playing with her new toys. They were all perfect! A kitty with accessories from grandma, bath toys (a tea set and crayons) from Kristen, and a princess castle with horses from us.