Celebrate!

On Saturday, we had quite the celebration.  It was Carter's birthday party, and lots of people that we love were there to celebrate his life.

Thanks for making the cakes & cookies, NaNa!

Because Carter's favorite book is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, we decided to run with it.

"A told B, and B told C, I'll meet you at the top of the coconut tree!"  :)

Honest to goodness, could that boy be any cuter?!

Carter's pretty cute, too ;)  Okay, so they're both cute.  I'm surrounded by it.

This mama had so much fun planning out every detail for our first big birthday bash.  Did I get carried away?  Maybe.  Will all of our parties in the future be like this one?  Heck no.  But we had 3 years of no birthdays to make up for :)

Our sidewalks were littered with kids and scribbles - and little feet were running through the yard.  Our trees were even climbed!  I couldn't stop thinking about The Giving Tree - and wondering how happy our trees and yard were to have kids enjoying them.

Does that sound weird?  Sorry.  We don't have littles here very often.  It might have made me sentimental :)

Recognize these boys?  It's Caleb and Jonathan!

In an effort to keep the stress level low for the little birthday boy, we decided not to have him open gifts during the party.  We thanked everyone for their 'presents' - but told them we'd like to enjoy their 'presence'.  Anyhow - instead of gifts, we decided to strip him down to his diaper, sit him in his high chair surrounded by laughing adults, and make him eat cake.

Yea, that's not stressful at all...

Carter seemed to do okay - aside from not wanting to actually smash the cake.  Daddy might have helped :)

Is it weird that I was too emotional to actually SING Happy Birthday?  I was.  Because I know that nobody has ever really celebrated this guy's birthday before...at least not like this.  And he stinkin' deserves it.  And it made this mama cry inside, just a little bit.  

It's always a fun surprise when I take the tray away.  This was no exception.  

Later we just let Carter be free and run around with his little friends, plop his booty in his sandbox, and open and close the door to his little tykes car.  Those are his favorite things, and since it was his day - we just let him be :)

That was our day.  Feeling loved by family and friends, enjoying sweet fellowship, and celebrating the life of a little boy.  Good stuff.

And it's not a great party unless it ends like this:

Yep.  Great party.

One Thing I Know For Sure: Celebrating your first birthday in a family?!  Good stuff.