Kyle's First Birthday Party - Part I

September 2012 update: For all of those who have contacted me wanting me to make items for their party... my Etsy shop is now open!  Have these (or similar or custom) items made for you!  Shop here.

Thought I would post pictures from Kyle's first birthday party.  Our good friend (and amazing photographer), Charity, was kind enough to capture his special day for us. 


Homemade Owl Cupcakes (Carrot Cake flavored to tie in Easter-- get it, bunnies eat carrots?)

The owl cake my mom made-- yes, she's amazing.  And no, she won't make you a cake.

Owl Nests

Kyle's picture of the month hung from the ceiling.  The backs have his likes and dislikes from that month.

Homemade owl lanterns.  Thank you, Pinterest.

The welcome sign outside our door.  Kyle's speech bubble says "Thanks for coming to my party.  Have a hoot!"

More decorations

The birthday banner I made as well as the food spread.  Each food had a woodsy/owl themed name to it attached to a clothespin.  Many of the foods are on wooden logs or in forest-themed containers.

The favors table.  Owl cookies decorated by my mom and boxes of smores with labels that say "Take Home S'more Fun!"

It's not a party with tons (50!) balloons.

We had each guest sign a page in a book for him.

 

Water bottles decorated by yours truly.

An example item from the buffet.

Water Table Fun

Even though Kyle is now one, I am still working part-time and have Mondays and Fridays off with Kyle.  Mondays are usually errands day-- we go to the grocery store, the post office, and spend some time reading books at the library.  Kyle enjoys the errands in the comfort of his stroller as we're fortunate enough to live a nice walks distance to all those places.  Our Fridays are reserved purely for fun.  We usually will go for a long walk, spend some time at the park, a playdate, or play outside in the yard.  Today I filled up the water table and let Kyle splash around.  I'm looking forward to his being able to walk and run so that we can go spend time where water is really fun-- at the pool or water park!

 

The water-mill is sooooo funny.

Put the ball in the cup and dump.  Repeat!

Kyle in serious concentration mode

Fill the cup with water and dump.  Pure joy.

Waving HI to neighbors.

100% Boy.  About to slap the water.

See Mom?  It's sooooo funny when I pound the water.

Mid splash.

Mommy probably should've put me in a swimming suit 'cause I got real soaked.

 

Multi tasker

Kyle is a great multi tasker. He brushes his teeth while bathing. Really, it's because we can't get him to stop brushing his teeth so we let him carry it forward into bath time. Builds good teeth cleaning habits right?



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Practicing with silverware

Silverware practice is quite messy in this here household. Kyle loves dipping his spoon himself. And the fork, well we still need practice stabbing food.








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Evening strolls

I just love how we're getting warmer weather and later sunsets as they allow our entire family to get out and enjoy a walk together. The girls enjoyed tonight's walk by the neighborhood prairie dogs. Kyle jabbered up a storm while takin in the great views from his comfy seat.





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Furniture mover

Kyle loves finding anything that's suitable for use as a walker. Today's choice? The water table. Why of course that's what it's for right?









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Kyle's First Birthday weekend, part 3

To end Kyle's birthday weekend, we spent the day at the zoo on Monday.  We headed down to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs with the grandparents.  The first exhibit (and the best, in my opinion) were the sophies.  For those of you without babies of your own, this is the affectionate name for a giraffe teething toy that is widely popular among Kyle's "crowd."  Anyhow, these giraffes are uber-friendly and sit at eye level with you thanks to a nice platform.   



For $2, you can feed them crackers.  And they will stick out their very long tongues for you.

Course the crackers kind of look like teething biscuits but Kyle quickly found out they aren't as yummy.

We seriously had a blast feeding them.  Kyle would erupt in giggles everytime one of them stuck their tongue out.

I had the greatest time watching his reactions.  I think it's safe to say that they are currently his favorite animals (perhaps only second to his doggies).

 

 

Kyle did really well the entire time at the zoo.  We ended up crossing into his afternoon nap, but he had no issues falling fast asleep in his stroller... until the lovely peacocks screeched and woke him up.

It was a perfect day at the zoo to cap off a perfect birthday weekend.  I seriously can't believe we have a 1 year old!  Boy has time just flown by.

Kyle's First Birthday weekend, part 2

It wouldn't be a first birthday without a smash cake. While we did have Kyle smash into a carrot cake cupcake at his party, we also got him his own personal Easter bunny cake for smashing purposes on his birthday.


We loaded him up on peas and green beans before hand (it cancels out all the sugar in the cake, right?!).

And then we sang Happy Birthday to him as he stared with curious eyes at the flames.

"Daddy can I?"

"Are you sure Daddy?"

"Alright then, here I go!!"

I just love this one.  He went for the efficient method of diving in face first.  I love the look in his eyes.

He's making a mess and we're all loving it (him included).

 

 

They don't call it pound cake for nothing!  Kyle loved to slap the frosting.  Ahh, what fun.


And what the cake looked like afterwards.  He actually ate quite a bit.  And of course, we had to help too.  (Hey, it was really yummy!!)