...Emme Ann is ONE...

My baby girl is officially one years old today. ::WAH!:: I mean...it really did come quickly...twice as quick as it did for Jude. But...Emme is just such an amazing little girl. She is such a little love and makes me laugh constantly!

I feel so blessed to be this little girl's mommy...and I can't wait to see how she grows in this second year! I have a feeling that her and I will butt heads in life...but I hope she knows that she brings her momma so much joy...and that I couldn't possibly imagine what life was like without her.

This past weekend we celebrated her first birthday Korean style with my family and our close friends. We wanted to celebrate with Derrick's family too, but his mom (and some other family members) were in Mexico building a house with One Mission for a family that Melody raised money for! My mom had this weekend off, and since she was doing so much cooking, it was the only weekend that we could do w/ my family. Leading up to the weekend was stressful. I mean...having a baby a few weeks after the holidays really isn't the best idea! Haha... I felt like I didn't have the mind capacity to start planning before the holidays...but then afterwards, time was running out!!! I did some researching and quickly found that these Koreans are ca.razy. when it comes to 1st birthdays!!!! I'm talking...move over MTV's Sweet Sixteen...these are like wedding reception quality parties! Oh my. I do NOT have $20,000 to drop on a party for my quarter Asian kid! LOL! But...I did use alot of ideas that I found...and after many late late late nights of crafting...had everything ready and set for her big day. (PS...totally hiring a wedding planner when we DO finally have to walk her down the aisle!)

The day was pretty perfect...weather was great...and we celebrated with some of our favorite people on the planet. It was also sweet to see Jude so excited for his baby sister (he's finally understanding the concept of birthdays and presents). I couldn't have asked for a more awesome party for Miss Emme...and hope that one day she'll appreciate all her momma and Halmoni did for her!!!















(If I weren't planning on posting a million pictures...I would do them one by one...but this is the best way to get all of them up here, unfortunately it kinda makes the size lamesauce. Oh well, you can click on the picture to enlarge it.) The cupcakes were done by Michelle Summers. She is phenomenal! They were so beautiful and SO delicious! She even wrote 축돌 on half of the medallions. So fabulous! It's traditional in Korean 1st birthdays to have a head table that is decorated with things such as Dduk (ricecake), fruit displays, and Dol Go-Ims (towers). It's also traditional to display pictures of the birthday girl (or boy) throughout their first year. I decided to put them all on the head table and put up a banner (that I made) with some balloons shaped like a flower. In my researching, I noticed alot of people using the flower balloons (like a ton of them strung together) as the backdrop...but it was aLOT of work. I also handmade the towers, hot glueing ricepuffs and black beans one by one (or mentos) to create 3 towers: an ox (as Emme was born in the Year of the Ox), Mentos flowers, and 축돌. Each tower took me at least TWO to THREE hours! Yipes.
















The first picture is of these globe things that I created as the center piece for each table. Each globe consists of 20 circles folded and glued together. Then I put a wooden dowel into the globe and stuck it in some of that flower foam stuff and covered that with some shredded paper and shoved it into a small glass. The table at the top was placed right by the front door. It served as the Doljabi table as well as the gift table. As guests arrived, they were asked to guess what item from the doljabi that they thought Emme would choose. The options were: money, stethoscope, pencil, computer mouse, or microphone. Guests placed a ticket in the cup corresponding with the item they thought she would choose...and whichever item was chosen, the guessers' names would be drawn for a prize!
















Emme was a beauty. She was flustered before the party began because mom and dad weren't paying much attention to her...but thankfully, Sheshe (Lindsay) came over earlier to play with the bambinos and that satisfied the birthday girl! Jude was ECSTATIC to see his BFF and GF, Riley...it was the SWEETEST thing to see them run up to each other and hug! And...as you can see...we had a butt TON of food!
















I was so thankful for everyone who came...it's so nice to know that there are people who love you and your children enough to take time out of their lives to celebrate a lil baby! The food...the mounds and mounds of food...was a huge hit! I have to give HUGE props to my mama who did ALL the cooking...and yes, EVERYTHING was homemade!!! My mom slaved in the kitchen all week long. I'm very blessed to have her as my momma!
















After we all stuffed our faces...it was time for the doljabi. I placed all the items on the floor and put Emme a nice distance away from them. I made sure to put the stethoscope in the middle- b/c that's what I guessed she would choose...and thought she would surely grab it if it were in the middle! We let Emme go...and she went STRAIGHT to the stethoscope....her hand was out and everything...but then...at the last second- without taking her eyes OFF the stethoscope- pivoted and grabbed the PENCIL! What!?!?! Jipped. That's what I was! LOL! But...I was actually pretty excited that she picked the pencil, as that is the same item that Jude picked for his doljabi! (The Asians were UBER excited that my daughter picked to grow up and become scholarly!) There were only 2 people who guessed that Emme would grab the pencil...and my aunt ended up winning the doljabi prize: a Starbucks cup and giftcard.






























I was leery as to how Emme would respond to her smash cake. She didn't so much like her cake we bought for the pictures. I mean...part of it was b/c she was FREEZING (....and the motheroftheyear award goes to....) but even when I put some frosting in her mouth, she scowled and cried! Poor Jude wanted a piece of her cake SO bad and was DYING to blow the candle out for her! She wasn't really sure what to do...and just as Jude did with HIS smash cake...she put her fingers...right.on.the.fire. The difference...Jude literally pinched the fire out- and Emme just let her hand linger over it! Oops. Needless to say...it hurt!!! Poor lil girl! But she got over it REALLY quick...and as soon as I put some frosting in her mouth, she was ALL about the cake! (As were ALL the little kids!) She was so cute and dainty while eating her cake...VERY different from her brother!
















After cake came time for opening presents. Emme had a blast...as did her brother! Thank you for all the fun gifts! Jude has already taken claim to her new girly teapot and teacups...and I cannot even begin to count how many cups of "tea" I've drank in the last few days!!! He's also stolen her ABC books from Tiffany/Jason and the 1st Words book from Sheshe! Outrageous!
















Thank you to my parents, Uncle Song, Uncle Yong and Aunt Jung, cousin Sarah, Linds, Jaime and Zoe, Daniel and Violet and Riley, Andy and Jobey and Lily and Bella, Tiffany and Jason, and Leslie for coming out and making it such an enjoyable time!
















The evening ended with everyone taking home a box of Dduk (ricecake)...which also follows (kinda) Korean tradition. It is actually traditional for the parents to box up 100 boxes and distribute to guests and neighbors...but...um...that's a lot of boxes...so I settled with 10 boxes! :) Clean up was a beast...but it was all SO worth it! Two Dol's down...one more to go...and my mom has already started planning it! Buahahaha! She's killin' me! :)

Happy Birthday, sweet Emme...and many more to come!