Monday, May 25, 2009

Abigayl's Birthday Celebration

For Abigayl's birthday we had a couple of our friends over for a small cookout and a balloon release. The balloon release idea came from one of my online friends, Carrie, who did one in memory of her daughter. She gave me pointers like: rent a helium tank, don't make the tags to big and laminate the tags. Thanks to all of her pointers, everything went fairly smoothly.

To make the tags, I used pictures from Abigayl's photo session with Melina at MK Studio for one side. The way I did that was by using the picture part of a labels that Melina had given us. She printed Abigayl's picture on mailing labels with info to MK Studio. I cut out the picture and then printed Abigayl's birth date and angel date out then taped them next to her picture. On the other side, I said, " This balloon was released to honor our daughter, Abigayl Marie Stamper's first birthday. This is one of the 130 balloons we released to honor the 130 days she blessed us. " Along with the different ways to contact us and find this website. I made the tags about a week in advance.

The tags were laminated, thanks to Katie, so they wouldn't get ruined if it rained.


These are the tags... laminated and hole punched.



I rented a helium tank and we spent Saturday morning blowing up balloons. My fingers were so grateful that we found clips that seal the end of the balloon instead of having to tie each one. Plus, the ribbon (with the tag on it thanks to Katie's hard work the night before) could just snap in along with the balloon so there was no tying at all!

It was a lot of balloons but it looked so pretty. I chose pink, purple and white balloons.


In our sea of balloon strings.


In the afternoon our friends came over for a cookout and the balloon release. I am so thankful that we had such nice weather. Here is Jill along wither her two kids Issac and Kayla (the two on the ends) and the little one in the middle is Parker, Katie and Shaun's oldest boy.


Here is Katie, Tom (Jill's husband) and Shaun is doing the grilling for me.


Here is Kayla, Chandler and Parker... aren't they all so cute!


Chandler with his daddy... he helped flip hamburgers! Chandler is about 2 weeks older than Abigayl so it is really great to watch him do things and see what Abigayl might be doing or reacting to things.


After the cook out we did the balloon release and Shaun took the pictures for me. As soon as I get copies I will post them. After the balloon release (which was beautiful) we all caravaned down to Floral Haven (the cemetery where Abigayl is buried). Katie and Jill brought Abigayl some flowers that were so beautiful.


Her grandma Patty and grandpa brought her this amazing butterfly and stand.


We brought her a flower cake and some balloons. (which one decided to float up to her instead of stay at her site)


My friend Sara brought her some cute pink flowers.


Her Aunt Tiffaney brought her Minnie Mouse and a pretty spray. I think she had one to the prettiest ones in the whole cemetery.


Our 1 balloon decided it wanted to see her in person so it took off for heaven. We even put her name on it!






It was a beautiful day. Weather wise and just the meaning of that day for us. We are thankful to have such wonderful friends and family. Thank you so much for all of the love that was pouring over us. We could feel it.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Wow. What great pictures. I'm glad you guys had a good day. I can't wait to see the balloon pictures!