We had the party at a local community center. The center is free to use, which works well for our budget (ha!). It also has an indoor pool that is AWESOME and is much loved by all of our friends and their kids. As luck would have it, we had the pool almost entirely to ourselves, so it was pretty much like a private party. Connor loved the water and kept blowing bubbles... I even took him down the BIG water slide (it's like one of those twisty amusement park water slides) and would kick his legs so hard when we were nearing the end and were about to splash into the water. I'm so glad I have two brave boys who will literally do anything. They're going to need the braveness when they start doing crazy things with daddy :) Because of us being in the pool, I didn't get many pictures other than the big event of the baby boy eating his cake. And contrary to his brother who ate none of his first cake, Connor enjoyed every ounce of cake goodness that we offered him. Watching him sit there and take little bites of his cake was so awesome. So here are the pictures. Can yall believe he's almost 1?!?!? Time is FLYING!

the cake and the cupcakes. I get my cakes and cupcakes at Sam's and they are DELICIOUS. Although, the lime green they showed me and that which showed up on the cake were not one in the same. I thought the lime green that came looked a little too similar to snot. Oh well :/

close up of the smash cake

wearing the same shirt Brayden did for his first birthday

he was saying "hey! Give me my cake NOW!"

Geez mom, don't shoot a picture of me like THIS!

Drew and baby Jon-Jon

the birthday boy's brother, who was VERY much into the birthday party. He had been practicing singing "happy birthday dear Tonden" all week :)

sweet Parker

Philip and Hannah

some of the girls :)

this was while we were singing. I won mom of the year award for forgetting the "1" candle (or any candles for that matter)

what IS this stuff?!?!

why the all the laughing? It's just a cake, right people???

another little bite

big bro cheering him on... Go Tonden Go!



is anyone looking? this stuff is DELICOUS!!! I hope the secret doesn't get out!


HALLELUJAH THIS STUFF IS AMAZING!

Hey yall! Check out this awesome stuff my mom gave me!

oh yum!

eating it by the fistfulls now

oh I just love this.




PRICELESS

ohhhh.





PRE-SHUSH. I can barely contain the "eeeeeeekkkkk" that wells up inside of me when I see this picture.

I think he was done :)

Officially. Done.
Because we were swimming and the time was limited we decided to just open presents at home. This was our first time to do this and I have to say I actually really enjoyed it. We were able to do it slowly and enjoy each gift one at a time. Connor loved it too!


he was actually surprisingly good at ripping the paper off


is this picture not priceless???? Look at his face! haha!


He was really into eating the paper and boxes too :) Of course.