Luke's First Birthday Party

We had a great time celebrating our youngest son's first birthday a few weekends ago.  We had a lot of family in town so we only invited a very small group friends... hard to do that when you have so many great friends!!  I had so much fun preparing for this birthday party... I have forgotten how much fun it is to plan a first birthday party.  I thought a lot about themes... fire trucks, dump trucks, cars, trains... this was his first birthday though and I know that this is the only one where you can get away with doing a really cute theme so owls it was, using blue and green.  I loved how it all turned out.  I ordered some of the decorations off of Etsy (the cupcake toppers and the goodie tags) but the rest I made.  I learned that from now on doing it myself doesn't always turn out to be cheaper! :)

Lots of family came to celebrate with us... everyone from Charles' side of the family were there and then everyone from my side (that is local and able to be here) came.  We loved having so much family here with us and it was definitely a special day!!

Once all the guests arrived, friends and family both, the big kids went out back to play (the Lord must have heard my many prayers asking for cooler weather for that night because it was so nice outside!) and the little ones enjoyed some time to play together.  They were so cute together!!

We decided that it was going to be better for everyone if we opened presents first before doing cake.  Luke didn't really get it at first... he just wanted to go, go, go but once he realized all the fun things that were in the bags he started to stick around and help a little.

It was finally cake time.  I was not so sure what he was going to do with it.. the few times leading up to his party when he had something sweet he loved it but his personality is so much like Chase that I was afraid he would just cry and cry from being the center of attention!  While everyone was singing to him Charles had to hold his arms pretty tight... he wanted that candle!!!!  In fact, we didn't even have to help him blow it out... at the end of the song he got free from Daddy and put the candle out himself.  Oops... glad he wasn't hurt!!

I gave him a taste so he would know that he liked it... it took him a few minutes but then there was no stopping him!!

By the time I took the cake away he had gotten to most of the icing... he didn't even touch the cake part.  Maybe the next first birthday I do I'll just do a cardboard box covered in icing since that is really all they eat anyways... if there is a next one! ;)

The big kids all took a break from playing to have some cupcakes... it was so cute to see them all sitting at the picnic table enjoying their cake!

Luke got a quick bath and got all cleaned up so he could tell all his guests thank you and goodbye.  And as if the icing from the smash cake wasn't enough, his Jupe was determined to give the kid some ice cream so for about 15 minutes this is what they did:

I was finally able to stop Jupe from overloading him completely with sugar just before all the guests headed home.  I was completely surprised that he went to sleep just a short 45 minutes later!  What a great day we had celebrating our youngest gift... he is so much fun and makes us smile daily!!  We are so thankful for our Luke Thomas!!