Boone's 1st Birthday Party

Today, we celebrated Boone's 1st birthday a week early.  His actual birthday is the 15th.  But I think I've decided to always have the party BEFORE the actual birthday as opposed to having it on whatever weekend falls AFTER the actual birthday.  Because what I've found is if the party is after the actual birthday, the actual 'day' comes and goes without much fanfare because we're so busy getting ready for the party (last minute preparations, cleaning the house, running errands, shopping, etc.).  This way, the party is out of the way, and we can enjoy the actual birthday as a family and make a really big deal of the whole day.

The theme of the party was giraffes.  I kept it simple since only family would be attending.  We had cake, ice cream, nuts, chips, pretzels, and M&M's (or as Fenn says, 'yummy yums').  {I actually think Fenn ate the majority of that bag of 'yummy yums'... I think that's his favorite candy ever since he discovered them at his 2nd birthday party.}  And then later, we grilled hamburgers and hotdogs.  The 'fixin's' included baked beans and a strawberry salad with sugared pecans.

We had lots of family here, including both sets of grandparents (Grami & Poppy and Grandma & Granddad).  My brother, Greg, and his whole family drove up from Birmingham for the day.  Tucker and Griffin even skipped their games so they could come to the party.  Dan's sister, Debbie, and her whole family came from Mooresville, NC.  We were so happy to have so much family here and know it will mean so much to Boone one day when he looks back at the photos of his party.  Thank you all so much for making the trip!  We had so much fun having you here.

Boone just got changed into his special birthday outfit and is walking down the hall to make his grand entrance.

A photo outside before getting his outfit dirty.

Getting ready to blow out the candle.  Fenn actually blew it out for him.

And then Fenn put his face in Boone's smash cake.  All he wanted was the icing.

Trying one of the giraffe's ears.

Family shot.

Funny face.

He didn't get very messy with the cake.  He did put his hands in it a little, but I don't think he ever got any in his mouth.  For some reason, we cannot get him to eat real food... basically anything with texture.  If we put anything in his mouth besides pureed baby food, he makes himself gag and spits it out of his mouth.  I sure hope he isn't going to be one of those babies with texture issues.  We're ready for him to start eating some big people food.

Opening presents with a little help from his big brother.

We got him a Pottery Barn Anywhere Chair to match Fenn's.  He immediately crawled up and sat down, grabbed his TV remote, and was ready to watch some TV... snotty nose and drool covered chin and all.

Cousins from Birmingham ~ Polly, Griffin, and Audrey.  They had been playing ball out in the front yard. Sort of a glimpse into our future... watching Fenn and Boone play ball out there someday.

The boys with the Osborne's from Birmingham (L to R):  Tucker, Fenn, Griffin, Greg, Boone, Tanya.  And on front row:  Audrey and Polly.

The boys with Grandma and Granddad.

The boys with Grami and Poppy and also cousins, Piper and Sydney.

The boys with the Loebach's from Mooresville (L to R): Piper, Debbie, Mark, Boone.  And on the front row:  Fenn and Sydney.

And one last photo before we called it a day.  It was past Boone's dinnertime and approaching his bedtime so he was tired and hungry.  And he did not want to be put down on the grass.  But I still think it's a cute photo... even with him crying.  And look at Fenn's bright blue eyes!

There are tons more photos from the party if you want to see them.  Look over in the right-hand column of the blog under 'More Photos of Fenn and Boone' and then click on the link to 'Boone's 1st Birthday Party'.