Happy Birthday Savannah

We survived the first year, and Savannah has turned 1-year old! I feel like we are graduating and should be receiving some sort of award! Hehe :) This past year has been the most spectacular year of our lives. There have been highs and lows learning the ropes in our new life and now I think we have a handle on this parenting thing, well for now at least! :)

Savannah is a very happy and healthy 1-year old toddler! She is walking well and trying to talk by repeating everything we ask. She says, Mama, Dada, and even says “ruff, ruff, ruff” when we ask her what a doggy says. She loves ham, strawberries, peas, and avocado. She started at 8lbs 10.5 oz. and 22 1/4” long; now at 12 months she weighs 20.5lbs and is 31” long. Her hair has turned to a gorgeous strawberry blonde, just like Nonnie predicted! Lilly is her best buddy, she chases her everywhere. She has six teeth and counting. She is extremely curious and thrives on exploring new objects! When in a group of children she is very kind and gentle and even gives hugs to her friends. She loves her dolly named Lala, and pushes her around in her stroller. Dancing is her favorite activity! She starts wiggling that tiny tushy the minute the music starts! I could go on for hours about her first year and the memories we have. I decided to start a birthday book for her that will include one picture of her on her birthday and a special birthday letter that talks about her developments over that year. This way when she is older she can look back and see how she changed from year to year and read about everything she accomplished.

Savannah's birthday was lovely! We spent the day enjoying her smile and took her to our favorite playground where we had lunch in the park, and then enjoyed gelato (what flavor? Erdebeer, strawberry, of course!). We spoke to all of our family and Savannah's cousins, Cary, Cooper and Carter sung her happy birthday. It was precious!

The next day we had her big birthday party with our friends. This party was our first party without having help from the family. We surprisingly pulled it off without a hitch! The menu was extremely tricky to plan. It had to be both vegetarian and meat friendly, free of peanuts, wheat, gluten and eggs. Savannah is allergic to eggs. We had it confirmed last week, so no eggs or nothing with eggs for the next year until we test again. We didn't have a grill so that eliminated any options there. Also it was Sunday so everything was closed, meaning any ideas of purchasing platters from a German deli were nixed. Then to top it all off, the E.Coli scare just broke out so I was not serving any raw vegetables!!! Never have I planned a party with this many restrictions. I was stressed! :) What did I finally decide to serve you may ask. Well here it goes, and this was all homemade and free of wheat, gluten, peanuts and egg. Everyone loved everything, and raved about our "spread"!

Italian Beef Drip sandwiches

Roasted Veggie Orzo Salad

Baked Beans with peppers

Black Bean Dip

Hummus

Guacamole

Macaroni & Cheese

Pigs and a blanket

Last but not least a huge bowl of fresh strawberries!

Savannah's cake was the most fabulous of it all! I really enjoyed making her cake. The icing was absolutely delicious; I used a buttercream recipe from Allrecipes.com. I'm so proud that I made this cake! Decorating it was my favorite part. Rocky and I stayed up late Saturday night, he was a tremendous help and decorated the cupcakes while I focused on the cake. I had purchased all the decorating tools so I was ready! :) Three batches of icing later we had the cake and cupcakes decorated beautifully. Now that I have made and decorated my first cake I've learned a few tricks especially with the icing! I'm so excited to make my next one. I think I will make one for Father's Day!

I also made Savannah's birthday hat. Since I didn't get it together in time to order a fancy birthday hat online, I committed to making her one. Little did I know how fun this would be and I think I'll make her a birthday hat every year! Her hat was so cute, and I was so proud too, I didn't even use any online instructions!

My inner Martha Stewart really shined over the weekend! :) Savannah was given many exciting presents that she loves to play with. We are very lucky to have such a great group of friends here. Everyone has been wonderful in helping us feel comfortable and get adjusted in Germany.

The next few weeks I’ll have more posts, pictures and videos. Sorry the updates have been slower than usual, I promise to work on this!

Hugs and kisses,

Elizabeth

P.s. Here are pictures that my friend Sandie and her husband took at our party. My pictures are already posted in two posts below this one.