Birthday Party

I think the birthday party was a success! We had Ben & Jack's first year birthday party at the Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas. We decided on the airplane theme since that is their nursery decor. I got a lot of fun ideas online and off Pinterest and had so much fun planning all the little details. One of my favorites was the double balloons (blue inside clear) to represent the sky, and the cute little cookie favors that said "thanks for flying with us!" We contacted a friend of the family's and her cookies are divine. I also loved Courtney's onesies she custom made for us - her website is www.thepaisleyabbey.com. She made quite a few of our infant onesies & bibs and it's all been fabulous.

Here's a couple of pictures of the party decor:

The whole thing felt like a whirlwind of activity, putting everything up then taking it down as fast as we could for the next party, so we didn't get nearly enough pictures. But we did take a few crowd shots.

I wish I could claim all of these shots - but these are courtesy of J's Uncle Don's photography skills :)

I can totally understand why you would want to have your first birthday party at home. We sort of had the odds stacked against us, since not only were the boys in a new place with a big crowd, but it was nap time and they were a little tired. So I just tried to go with the "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to" frame of mind :) The boys were a little unsure of everything and not their usual sunny selves, but that's okay; they still had a fun time sampling some of the snacks and visiting with friends & family. They were not into smashing their birthday cakes, so we didn't push that. Instead I gave them cupcakes the next day at home for them to make a big mess. :) Also, my little cardboard airplanes were a total bust. I still don't know what I did wrong, because they worked at home, but I'm keeping them for pretend play. We'll get use out of them, yet! 

Jack & Ben took a 20 minute nap on the way home and then refused to go back to sleep, continuing with the "it's my party" mantra. But luckily they were really happy to be home! Perhaps it was the crazy amount of presents taking over our living room that they got to tear into, but they were happy little men in the afternoon! I think we opened gifts in three shifts, which was a lot of fun. They loved the giant bags and shaking around the tissue paper, and they have really enjoyed their new toys this week! Luckily their Auntin Erin was here this week to help me clean out closets & drawers to make way for the new stuff. Our friends and family were all far too generous, and J & B are lucky little guys. I have to point out the picture below of the boys with their cousins. Happy little Cooper & sweet energetic Connor were here to have fun and I just love seeing all the boys together!

I put together a one-year slideshow for Ben & Jack and Jonathan borrowed a projector & travel screen from work so that we could play it. It worked beautifully at home! However in the noisy museum you couldn't quite hear the music & the screen wasn't in the best position for others to see. So I'm including it below. I've probably watched it a hundred times, and only just recently stopped crying every time I saw their baby pictures in the slideshow. My, how fast a year can fly by! Also, I can't help but point out that sacrifices were made to create this slideshow. Not all mom-pictures are flattering, but I did it for you, boys.

Thanks to all of our wonderful friends & family who took the time to celebrate this past year with us. We are grateful to have you in the lives of our sweet boys and love you all :)