Farm Party

I've got a bazillion pictures for you guys of the party celebrating Mr. James' first year of life... so let me keep the words as minimal as possible, but I do have some tidbits to share along the way. (to save some time from loading and all - I'm making the photos smaller than I normally would - but you can click on any of them to make it larger.)

One of the walls all decorated for my little man's farm themed birthday! I pretty much had everything covered in some sort of decor.

   

The centerpieces... I had a vision - but thankfully my sister and stepmom brought them to life. To say I had a vision means that I bought stuff that I thought would be cute... but had no clue how to put it together. They turned out GREAT!

  

These balloons just made me laugh... and we had such a fun time blowing them up - the the udders on the cow and the curly tail on the pig made me just smile. Too funny!

 I set up a craft table for the kids to paint a window decoration (farm themed, of course) as a part of their party favors.

I also set up a station for people to make James a birthday card to be put in a birthday time capsule - or maybe just in his baby book... we got a LOT of cards from the kids. I think only 1 adult (thanks Aunt Cindy) made him a card, but I'll save all the cards that came with his gifts too. 

This was the "fill your own favor bag" candy bar... I had a little bit of everything - thanks to Sam's for making it easy!

 James' cake made by my sister in law and her neighbor, Amber. It truly is amazing, and I loved all of the personal aspects of it - it couldn't have been more perfect! Each animal has amazing detail, and I honestly could write a blog post alone on this cake... and I might (does anyone have interest in the detailed photos I took of each aspect?)

 The smash cake... and ooooh did he smash it... but we'll get to that. The cuteness can't be missed here, but even more than that there is a funny story that goes along with this little guy. Apparently Susan & Amber were up working on this masterpiece until at least 2:30AM - and after a glass or two of wine... they decided the pig needed nipples... how funny is that?!

James trying out one of his two (yes, TWO) new wagons with his cousins... we let the boys stay with my inlaws Saturday morning while we decorated for the party - and when we got there... there was an exact duplicate of the wagon we bought... great minds, right? Hilarious. I guess we now have one for the boys to use for mud pies and all the other things little boys will do with a wagon, and one to keep clean for trips to the park or zoo.

 The many faces of James... he looks miserable here, doesn't he? HAHAHA - he really did enjoy the party - but I guess he's wondering why in the WORLD are these people sticking my face in this thing. I LOVE IT!

 My Dad & Tyler... too cute for words. He just flat crashed out - and when he's not grinning from ear to ear - looking exactly like John as a baby - rumor has it that he looks a lot like my Dad.

 My little tiny man... I made his shirt on a site called Inktastic - I uploaded a picture of 1/2 a cake... and it said "I'm halfway to my 1st birthday"... I'll try to get a pic of it at the end of the post.

 The Hap HAP Happiest birthday boy! It could have gone either way on the singing and hat... but he had a blast. I just love that face and it doesn't get captured on camera very often!

 Mmmmmmmmmmm... CAKE! I think he enjoyed himself... what do you think? His little hands stayed green until sometime much later.

 Mom & Dad with the cake covered birthday boy! Memo to Susan & Amber... smashcakes need white icing!! HAHA!

 He enjoyed opening about 1/4 of his presents - then it just became overwhelming... and I believe I've got a picture to show you why! Oiy!

Opening presents and still having fun... he got so much great stuff - and luckily he's still little enough that he won't notice if a lot of it doesn't get opened until after we get to Memphis! 

My little Motley Crew... love these kids so stinking much! We truly had a blast and all the work was more than worth it just to see the big smiles on James' face.

Any wonder why he might have gotten overwhelmed?! Wow... the boy is loved... that's all I can say. Some really fun stuff though - a trike, a water table, two wagons, clothes, books, little people, golf sets and much much more!

And lastly... the shirts... cell phone cameras are not good... BOO!

A great time was had by all - and I've got plenty of other photos to share... so hopefully, I'll get my act together and post another bunch of photos this week.