To Party or Not To Party...

So what started as a super enthusiastic beginning to Sydnie's first birthday planning quickly fizzled and I now find myself in the middle of December. I have to admit the pressures of the depressing economy have led me to re-think the need and value of having such an elaborate birthday party. After all, the satisfacation of this party would technically be all mine, right? Well, after much deliberation and with Steve basically leaving it up to me, I've decided to go through with it! (at least I say that today) Truly, I struggle with this decision. I mean, its a good chunk of money we could apply towards something potentially more necessary. But at this point with the decision made to move forward I guess I'll proceed as planned and try to be wise and careful with each dollar. So first thing I need to work on is eliminating about 80 people off the guest list. Sadly that will probably mean cutting off a lot of my own personal friends but then again, not sure how much fun they'll have at a one year old's birthday party. For the few that know, I am an anti-eviter, but if this gets me an extra layer of cake, I guess sayonara to the customized invitations. Now do I really need entertainment for the kids or can I just start a never ending game of freeze tag?! Well here are some highlight photos from our Oahu trip earlier this month. Sydnie did great although I think we'll be heading to Maui next time. I guess the Waikiki beach hotels are older and rely on the beach for recreation so the pools were small and dinky. They wouldn't even allow us to use a floatie as it would take up too much space. We did learn on this trip that Sydnie seems to have Steve's skin tone as after a day in the sun she was already a shade darker than me!

Sydnie has no choice being appa's little throw toy!