The Busy Bee's First Birthday Party

 Allie's first birthday was on Friday this year so we celebrated with her first birthday party on Saturday afternoon. We have started calling her the busy bee, so we decided to have a Bee Day party with lots of bumblebees. We actually had the party at my grandmother's home. I had many birthday parties there as a child, so it was neat to have a birthday party for one of my own daughters there too.

 We had all kinds of bee foods...bumblebee pie, bumblebee bites, beeswax and chips, bee treats, bee sweets and bee juice

Here are all our little bees with the Bee Keeper (their Daddy) and I.

 Bee still, my heart! Love these little sweet bees!

Allie loved all the party food! She is liking to try all kinds of new foods now.

Our dear friend of ours from Virginia made her birthday sign. It turned out perfectly!

We loved celebrating with everyone who came. We are thankful for everyone who came to celebrate Allie with us!

We realized as we were setting up that the bees (real bees) had decided to join the party! There were probably 30 or 40 carpenter bees flying all around inside. Thankfully, these bees don't sting! My aunt sent me this picture. That little bee flew right through the picture!

Allie was pretty excited about digging into her smash cake!

 This was so much fun! We had found a bee pinata and after watching the big kids a time or two, Allie was wanting to swing at the pinata too! Look at that face!

She had fun opening her cards and gifts. Here she is opening her card from Mimi and Pop. 

and trying on her outfit from Grams.

She really got into opening her presents when she realize she was really supposed to rip all the wrapping paper off the gifts!

Allie, our sweet busy bee, we loved celebrating you and your First Birthday with you! It is amazing how quickly your first year has flown by and how quickly you have changed and grown in this first year. We are so proud of you and so thankful for you! We love you, Little Bee♡

Happy 1st Birthday, Allie

 I'm not sure exactly how this past year flew by quite so quickly, but we woke up with a ONE year old in our house this morning! She awoke all smiles as usual! Her sisters had decorated her high chair before she was even out of bed this morning. We found out when we sang "Happy Birthday " to her this morning that the song really makes her grin.

 The big girls had school but after school, we planned to take her to Burneys for her very first cupcake.  She has her birthday party on Saturday and I wasn't sure that she would eat the cake since she had never had any. No worries...I sat the cupcake in front of her and she dove into it with both hands before I could even get my camera ready to take her picture!! She should be just fine with her birthday cake tomorrow! This was her happy cupcake face!!

 Mommy and Daddy had to get a picture with this big girl!

 She loves real food already and pasta is a favorite for her.

 After supper, she opened her gifts from our family.

Allie certainly was excited about her special day!

Allie, your smile and laugh make our whole world brighter. You have smiled even from the time you were just barely a few weeks old to these ear to ear grins you give us every day now. We thank God for the pure JOY you are to our family and pray you will continue to smile and shine for Jesus every single day! We love you so much!
Happy FIRST Birthday, Allie Grace ♡

Charleston 2018

 At the end of the Spring Break week for the girls, we took a long weekend as a family to do a combination of photography trip and sightseeing trip to the Charleston, SC area. Brent and I have been to Charleston several times, but this was a first trip for all the girls.
We got into the campground in the early evening so we began with a little photography for sunrise the next morning at Botany Bay.

 What a beautiful place with so many views to see!

The girls found beautiful shells that we took lots of pictures of because at Botany Bay, you are not allowed to remove any shells. 

 We found the photographer in the midst of the driftwood.

 Here are their beautiful shells they found.

 We also did some photography along the iconic Botany Bay road. Brent and I are currently working on a new series of photographs together.

 After an early morning, we were ready for some lunch and some disc golf, swing set and life sized chess time!

In the late afternoon, we headed to see the Angel Oak. We had no idea the tree was so large or so popular! 

 This girl was excited to spend her last weekend before she turned 1 in Charleston!

We headed to downtown Charleston, after the Angel Oak, to see the Battery and Rainbow Row.

Honestly, I think this was one of the girls' favorite stops of the entire trip, especially the cannons!!

Last time Brent and I came to Charleston, it was just the two of us. We didn't have any kids yet. It was definitely fun to see Charleston through our girls' eyes!

We had a bit of car trouble Saturday morning, but after a nap, playground time and making some new friends (also from North Carolina) in the campsite across from us, the girls were all ready to go again.

We decided to head to downtown Charleston again. This time we visited the City Market...the pouring rain found us also!

Out last full day in Charleston brought cooler Temps but beautiful sunshine, so we headed out again.

Here is Allie, sporting her first ponytail, or sprout, as we call it!

We headed to Edisto Beach State Park. This was so much fun! This girl was very excited about her first shell she found!

Rachel was a shell magnet. She found 6 or 7 beautiful lightning whelks completely by herself!

This was a completely different experience than beachcombing in NC. We found whelks, conches, sand dollars, and sea glass all along the beach.

When we started into the park, we were told it was a mile to the shell mound. Brent and I kind of decided we would just walk till the girls seemed tired or ready to go, not even considering that they would walk the whole mile. They walked and looked for shells and filled their shell bags (best beach find that I've ever bought them- mesh messenger bags that I bought at a recent festival that hold ALL the shells!)  and they walked the whole TWO miles of that beach searching for their favorite shells!

Sunday afternoon took us outside of Charleston to the Old Sheldon Church Ruins. This spot was a little off the beaten path and worth every minute to get there! It was absolutely serene and peaceful.

While not everything went as we initially planned on this trip, we had a full and exciting few days in Charleston. I am thankful for each of my little people and my big guy too and I'm glad God gave us each other for all these adventures and that we are blessed to enjoy His creation together!

McGuirt Girls, April 2018