THE Party!!!

With the giant milestone of turning one absolutely required us to throw a little birthday bash. We grilled Kebobs, had Carmel Apple Salad, Potato Salad, Fresh Grapes, and those delightful cheese balls from Sam's club in the giant barrel! Yum!! I also decided the night before on a theme. I went with Rubber Ducky theme since the kiddos that were going to be there were so varied in age (9 months and up!) and everyone loves a rubber ducky! They each got to take a couple home for party favors! I made a bathtub cake with the duckies on top. I think it turned out really cute! I also made Richard go out and get the ice cream that morning for the party and then forgot to serve it with the cake! Ugh! All in all things went fabulously, though Kebobs take a long time to grill. Richard was still finishing them at 10:00 last night, but then I made so many that we will be eating Kebobs the rest of this week! Good thing they were tasty!



Now for what you are all REALLY waiting for... the pics!

Jansen is practicing his proposals to the girls already at ONE!! Here Adalyn is giving him pointers on style and delivery. Addy: "Don't scream at me if you want me to be yours. Girls don't like that! Your technique needs work, Bub! But the knee thing is kinda cool even if it's cliche'!"

Balloon Fun! These things are tricky to grab and keep!

Opening one of the first presents!

It's a Big-Belly Dragon Bank to go with his bedroom theme! How cool! When you put the coin in the dragon's mouth it snakes down his throat to his belly and you can see it the whole time! All the kids (including the 21 year old Olga) had to play with the bank! Mommy thinks she should get one for her classroom so that the students can "feed it," since they find it so fun. Maybe we'd have Jansen's 200 college units that we want secured by the time he's 5 covered by the time the school year ended that way!

The Rubber Ducky Themed table.

Side view of the cake. The "water" in the tub is whipped up jello jigglers.

Jonathan wanted to peek out from behind the cake when I was taking a closer shot!

Jansen (and Jonathan) with the cake!

I even made the cake itself blue! Here is the cut cake after we served it!

Jansen eating his first birthday cake!

Messy face and fingers. The jello part had him distracted on his fingers!

Here is Jansen eating his first cake. I thought you all that couldn't be here would like to see!

I had to put this on for those of you who weren't here to see it. I don't think it reads too well, but cute all the same. Jansen would crawl around and headbutt the balloon since he couldn't grab and hold it with his hands! It was hilarious until he got distracted by the dog bowl!