Weekend in Review: Birthday Edition

Well what a fun birthday weekend we have had! The days were full of festivities, playing and celebrating our little man's first year of life.

Friday was B's actual birthday. I decided to make pancakes for the occasion, and made B's a number 1.

He wasn't too sure of it at first, and really didn't care for it by the end of things. I swear to get this kid to eat anything other than fruit and veggies is a struggle. I realize this is the opposite of most parent's struggles with food, but it still is so frustrating!

After breakfasts we decided to let him open his presents from me and Drew.

And if you're wondering, there's a reason why all of his toys are not in boxes. I bought all of his birthday presents at the consignment sale earlier this spring for SUPER awesome deals. He doesn't know the difference between new and used, and I'm able to get him a lot more for the money we've set aside. Works out well on all accounts I think!

Unfortunately the rest of the birthday morning was less than stellar. For some reason the kid kept screaming and would not stop. Thankfully he took a very good nap, and when he woke up he was all snuggly with Poppa D.
Mom and Dad bought Brayden a wagon for his birthday and set it out in the middle of the living room so that when he woke up from his nap he'd see it. After our bonfire last weekend we knew that it'd be a hit!

Friday evening we celebrated B's birthday with my parents & Drew's dad. We ate chicken spaghetti (which B LOVED), salad and french bread. Then after dinner we decided to give B a cupcake. This was his first experience with anything sweet, so I figured he'd be ALL about it. He was very inquisitive, but when he got his hands in it, he hated it. He is very much a texture person when it comes to food, and apparently the feeling of texture on your hands and mouth are not appealing. Poor guy kept trying to wipe it off his lips, only smearing it further.

"Hey, what's with all the commotion?"

"I DO NOT like this creamy stuff all over my mouth!!!"

Saturday was the big PAR-TAY. After all of the planning, organizing and running around like a chicken with my head cut off, I'm proud to say that the big party went off without a hitch.

Here are the much anticipated cupcake toppers. LOTS of work to just be thrown away, but they turned out SO cute!

I got the idea for the wording "Oh what fun, Brayden is one!" From Jenna's blog when her Brayden turned 1 not too long ago.

The smash cake! I had some problems with the icing getting too runny for the red color. Apparently you can't use food coloring for icing, otherwise it turns into what I got. It really wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be to make it, and thankfully my mom was here to help with a lot of the preparation.

We had so much fun celebrating with our closest friends and family.

Mrs. Linda was my boss at the eye clinic I worked at before I had B. She takes care of him a lot when Drew and I need a sitter, and he LOVES her. We were so glad to have her here to celebrate his big day!

I think Brayden was a bit overwhelmed by all of the people and attention at the house, and about half way through the party, was pretty fussy. We quickly unwrapped gifts, let him attack his smash cake (which wasn't that much of an attack due to the fear of icing I mentioned earlier) and then put him down for a nap. Our friends were so sweet and got some of the neatest gifts for B-- he now has enough cars, trucks puzzles and books to fill a warehouse.

Opening his gift from Grandad. I love this picture, because it shows off his chubby belly :)

"Hmmm... what's in here?"

A NEW truck! Yay!

Thanks to the advice from some friends, I've set aside some of the toys to pull out gradually instead of unloading everything all at once. This gives me some peace of mind on afternoons where he would otherwise throw fits if I can't play with him.

"Hey, you tried this stuff with me last night!"

He was a bit more into the cake on Saturday compared to Friday, but he still was not having it with the texture.

After B woke up from his nap, he had a fun surprise in having his cousins here to celebrate the afternoon with him! They brought over a fun birthday gift that he was able to open with them...

(Notice Toby getting into the action. He was so nosy about what was going on!)

The gift was a Leap Frog alphabet choochoo train. Oh my goodness, the boy is in LOVE. He pushes it all over the house, and is constantly pressing the buttons. I normally am not a huge fan of big toys, but this thing TRULY entertains him like nothing I've seen. Thank you Uncle Paul, Aunt Kelly and girls for graciously giving Brayden an awesome gift!

This morning I told Drew that birthday parties are hard work. I seriously am SO exhausted from everything that transpired over the weekend. Not only is it physically exhausting, but I think that emotionally it is as well as it's such a HUGE milestone. I jokingly mentioned ot someone that all of the planning, hand gluing, cutting and sorting of napkins, cupcake toppers, cakes etc, takes hours and days, and then in the snapping of fingers is gone in flash! If anything it's given me resolve to never spend too much time and energy on all of the decorations and tiny details because B will not remember that so much as the friends who surrounded him and loved on him throughout the day.

We have a fun week planned since my mom is here for a couple more days...hope everyone has a great week!