Week 53-2

Mar 10-16

Jack's birthday party was a big hit! It all started Saturday morning when we woke up and put up decorations. I was so thankful because it was a BEAUTIFUL day outside. The two days prior to that morning we woke up to rain all day long. We were happy to have sunshine and warm weather! Once again, I could not have done it without the help of Cindy, Ryan, Amanda, Caroline, & Haley. They were absolutely amazing!!!!

After decorating we all got ready and waited for our first guests. The food was pretty much all done so we just had to set it out when we were ready to eat. :) I recommend this for parties. We went for a "traditional" birthday party theme. I chose blue and green as the colors and made everything match up. For decorations we did traditional streamers and balloons and then added a customized birthday banner made up of pictures from every month since he was born. It was really fun to put them all up and actually visualize how he has changed.

For the cake table I had decorated picture frames and filled one with a newborn picture and the other with a 1 year old picture. Ed's mom had brought pictures of him at his 1st birthday party and I quickly made a "frame" for it to place next to Jack's 1st birthday picture. I also put his "Birthday Boy" hat to complete the scene.

The middle table had snacks, cups, plates, napkins, bowls, etc all in blue and green. We had a present table to the side and I hung up "Happy Birthday" banners. We were ready for a PARTY!!!

As soon as people started arriving Jack started to get excited. He realized people kept coming through the door so he started waiting and looking for the next person to come so he could greet them. It was very cute. :) He also did a great job of walking around and mingling with everyone at the party.

Once everyone got to the house we went ahead and served all the food. As people were eating we noticed Jack was getting a little sleepy so we went ahead and started on presents. He got SO MANY neat things!! Clothes, toys, etc. Everyone was so generous and he LOVED everything!!! He hardly knows what to do with himself now. He is a very lucky kid. Here are some shots of opening presents...

Since he was already cranky we figured we should go ahead with the cake so he could go down for a nap. At first he wasn't happy about getting in his high chair, until I slipped a taste of frosting in his mouth. He perked right up! We sang happy birthday and he dug into his GINORMOUS cake. He did a significant amount of damage, eventually we cut him off because we were worried he might get sick. For everyone else I made what I call "cuppie-cakes." They are always a huge hit. It is basically a cupcake inside of an ice cream cone with icing. Yummy!

That pretty much sums up the party! It was an incredible day. I hope everyone who came had a great time. Thank you for coming! Thank you for Jack's presents! Thank you for celebrating such a momentous occasion for our family!!!! We are so blessed to have such amazing friends and family!! I feel like this is the longest blog ever...

THE END!