Matthew’s 1st Birthday

We’ve been anticipating this day for some time, and now it’s gone.  My baby is moving from an infant into a toddler.  And while I’m excited about it, it does make me a little sad.  Pretty soon he’ll be going to school, and before you know it, he’ll be off and gone to college.  And we certainly won’t be able to put him in a dump truck and ride him around the living room.

And he’s going to need his first haircut, as mullets just aren’t in fashion anymore.  I am going to miss that little mohawk though!  As promised, I said I’d show you pictures of his birthday party. Matthew’s nursery is jungle-themed, so I found these really cute printable safari-themed birthday invitations on Etsy.  So adorable!  Everything coordinated.  We had a small gathering of family and friends at a park near our house.  The weather was perfect and the company couldn’t have been better.  Here are the sugar cookies I made for favors that matched the invitations.  The tiger:

The lion:

The giraffe:

All three of them together:

And all 18, drying:

Since they were party favors, I put each one in a cello bag with a thank you card.  Oh the cuteness is killing me!

We had our birthday party at the park near our house.  We invited our family and close friends to help us celebrate.  Here’s the display table with all the food.  It was a little breezy Saturday, so if you look closely, you can see a napkin covering the lettuce and a package of napkins on top of the plates so the wouldn’t blow away.  (I should have fixed that for the picture, but apparently, I forgot.  Oh well, such as life.  Thanks to Katie and Cody for putting the happy birthday banner together!  It looks so good.)

(I apparently removed the napkins for this close-up though.  Go figure.)

There’s my little lion.  Hi cutie!  I was originally going to place him on top of a cupcake to give to the birthday boy, but it was quite heavy, and I was afraid it’d sink into the buttercream frosting.

My good friend Carri-Anne helping me swing Matthew.  Swinging is one of his favorite things to do.

And lastly, here he is eating his first cupcake.  His first birthday cupcake, with the help of Grandpa.  (They’re matching.  I just noticed that–how funny!)

Putting this party together was a lot of work, (thanks to my hubby for helping me with many of the details, especially manning the grill!), but children have a way of doing that to you.  But it’s totally worth it. Thanks also to our family and close friends for helping us celebrate this milestone.  It would not have been the same without you! Much love, xoxo