First Birthday Party

We celebrated Oliver’s first birthday last Saturday with a party at our house. We were joined by over 30 friends and family and it was a blast. 

So, now it’s time to send out a HUGE thank you to everyone who came and especially to everyone who helped make the party such a success.

The night before the party, Lindsey and her two cousins, Kacey and Ashley (randomly visiting from Oklahoma and completely unaware of what they were getting into), came over to help us bake and decorate. They baked cakes, decorated cupcakes, hung banners, and made miles of the coolest bunting ever and were so much fun to hang out with while they were doing it. We were up until 1:30 am the day of the party and without the help of these three we wouldn’t have gotten any sleep at all.

While Lindsey and her cousins were hard at work, Grandma Ann was creating a masterpiece for Oliver’s birthday cake. The theme of the party was robots (because I found a cute robot invitation I wanted to use and because robots are awesome). We decided to do cupcakes for everyone else and make Oliver his own small cake that he could dig into and make a mess. Ann makes amazing cakes and this one was no exception. Check her out hard at work and the finished product:

My parents and grandmother all came over a few hours before the party was set to start and helped us get everything ready (they also brought yummy dip and potato salad). As soon as they walked in the door we put them to work, making sandwiches, blowing up balloons, getting ice, entertaining the kiddo, etc.

By the time the guests arrived, everything was perfect. The desserts were ready, the food was laid out, Oliver was in his super cute birthday t-shirt (from Etsy.com) and we were ready to relax and enjoy our day.

Oliver was in an awesome mood. He spent time hanging out with family and friends and he ate some sticks.

Then it was time for cake. Oliver had never had sugar before and has always been a picky eater so he didn’t really eat a lot of it but he still managed to make a mess.

I was concerned that my son lacked the all-important sweet tooth so I decided to give him a cupcake on Monday (his actual birthday). Turns out he prefers chocolate cake.

Thank goodness. As Lindsey pointed out, she and I do too much baking for him not to like the occasional sweet.

It was a perfect day. I am so grateful for everyone who came out to celebrate our little boy and for all the people who helped make the party so stress-free for me. I can’t believe our little boy has already turned one. I can’t wrap my head around the fact so quickly we have gone from this:

to this:

What an amazing year.