1st birthday party

While I realize this is ONLY 6 months late... My lil guys 1st birthday was SO much fun, I have to finally get this in here.  We have been just crazy busy since his birthday I have not had a chance to update our blog - there is so much to tell!  But I do want to start with just his birthday, since I can definitely make an entire blog on this very special day!

First of all, Jake and I hand made his invitations.  Due to his complete obsession with his plastic screw driver and hammer at the time, we decide to go with a construction theme.  We had it in Bampa Milo's shop - the perfect place for all the kiddo's to run wild!

"Good morning Birthday Boy!!!  You are officially 1 years old! Tomorrow is your special party!"

Now for the prep work - we had snacks for everyone, including these tool shaped, chocolate covered rice krispy treats I made.  I found tool cookie cutters on Amazon.  It was one messy, sticky project, but they turned out so yummy!

To keep the theme going, we had "dirt and worms" (crushed up oreo cookies with gummie worms) inside the dump of a tonka truck.

Rachael Ray inspired me to have a waffle bar!  After watching her "waffle week" and all the things you can do with a waffle maker, I made 3 different kinds of batter, red velvet cake, chocolate cake and regular waffle mix, with all kinds of goodies to put in it - berries, chocolate chips, you name it.  It was quit fun, and in the end looked like Lego's! (sort of - they did end up sticking a little bit so it wasn't quit the effect I was looking for).

my helpers making waffles!

And of course it's not a birthday without a cake!  Thanks to my dear friend June, she made this cake just for Wes.

And he loved it!

His cousin didn't think he was eating it fast enough...

One of the rare moments I actually got to hold my own son at his birthday party - there were so many people there trying to get their hands on him, AND we had so many fun activities, it was a crazy day!

The first activity we had for the kids was decorate their party hats!  I painted chalk board paint on the front of these plastic construction hats for the kids to write their names on, and had several stickers and fun things to put on them.  The kids really enjoyed decorating their own hats and actually wore them!

The second activity we had was a "field trip" down to the barn to see all the baby cows!

Then we played Pin the Nail on the Hammer! (yup, I made that!)

 After cake and a clothes change - we started opening presents.  Auntie Ashlie put a balloon on her card she got him, and who knew this would be the ONLY thing he cared about!  The toys didn't seem near as cool as this balloon was.

Our craft project for the party consisted of making and decorating these fun bird houses!  My parents had several pre-cut ready to make bird houses.  We painted the front with chalk board paint for the kids to decorate.  They all helped Grandpa Milo build them and decorated each one themselves.  They were a HUGE hit!

The final activity we had (well, it wasn't the final, it was there the whole time!) was a treasure hunt in the sand.  Since it was March in Oregon, we couldn't really use the swimming pool outside per-say  so we filled a kiddie pool with sand and I buried hidden treasure for the kids to dig up and find.  I bought just some dollar tree toys, filled Easter eggs with them (taped them shut...) and buried them in the sand!

 Yes, that is Wes EATING the sand, yum yum....

All in all I'd say he had a GREAT birthday party.  Everyone enjoyed themselves, adults and kids alike.  Most importantly Wes had the time of his life.  He played strong for a solid 8 hours and still had a hard time going to bed (his cousins sleeping over might have made it even harder for him...). I could not have pulled it off without some GREAT help from my dear friend Amy who helped with all the prep work and was at my beck and call throughout the whole party.  And of course my parents who made it all come together in their shop!  But what a blast we had!  If only he would remember...