Sam's Birthday "Recap"

I cannot even believe it's been over a week since my last post. Last week was absolutely CRAZY. Between getting ready for Sam's birthday party and transporting my Dad to and from dialysis and doctor appointments and just everyday living, I have no idea where the week went. But luckily Sam's first birthday party came together nicely and turned out to be a success.

I know based on this post you might not believe me, but I barely took any pictures yesterday. I knew I would be busy running around and taking care of everyone and everything so we had our photographer friend, the very talented Marci Lambert, come by and take pictures for us. You have no idea the pressure that took off my shoulders. I was able to get things done, mingle with our guests and enjoy myself and still get some awesome pictures of our boy's special day. I cannot wait to see the pictures.

OK, so it all started with this:

I found this painted wood train at Hobby Lobby and loved it. I immediately decided this would be the theme of the party so I picked up about 20 of them and got right to work on the invitations. I love that they are colorful, yet simple.

On the inside I included the party details, as well as a recent picture of our boy. I always like to include a picture on the invitations for their first birthday.

Getting this picture was a bit of a dilemma. You see, I am blessed to have a boy who sees me coming with the camera and instantly smiles from ear to ear. However, on this particular day smiling was definitely not on his agenda. On any given day this would not have been a big deal, except that this was not any ordinary day. It was the end of February and the in order for me to get my March 7 RSVPs I had to get the invitations mailed out ASAP. So this was the only picture where he wasn't looking either mad, confused or a bit lost.

Mad

Confused

A bit lost

See what I mean?

Anyway, so in keeping with the train theme I decided to make a "Happy Birthday" banner to hang in the kitchen. I used a variety of coordinating papers, including the one used on the invitations, a whole lot of scrapbooking supplies, tools and ribbon and this here is what we ended up with:

Now I know I'm no Martha, but I gotta admit I was pretty pleased with it when it was all said and hung.

We had a full house and a total of 18 kids running around so for kiddie entertainment we hired a lady who does face painting and had actually painted Isabella's face during our trip to Cedar Hills Farm last fall. She is awesome! I think all but one of our underage guests got their faces painted. They not only loved having theirs done, but they were mesmerized watching others get their faces painted as well. Unfortunately Sam would not sit still long enough for the lady to do an intricate design, but she was able to paint a few balloons on his cheek.

Isabella however had her face painted like Hello Kitty and loved it so much it was a struggle to get her to let us wash it off at the end of the day.

I decided that instead of doing goody bags this time around, I would give each child a cookie with a tag saying " Thank you for coming to my party! Sam". So I found this lady on Etsy who custom makes cookies and you guessed it, she made them to look exactly like the wooden train that was the inspiration for it all. They not only looked awesome, but they were delicious as well. I don't have a picture of them right this moment, but as soon as I get Marci's pictures I'll make sure to share.

Another thing my Mom and I did was to paint a train on some cardboard, cut out a window and put it out for the kids to play with and take pictures. The kids absolutely loved it! I had no idea how much of a hit this painted train would be. I tell ya, you gotta love cheap entertainment!

Isabella and Madison aboard the crazy train.

And finally, here are a few more pictures:

The birthday cake:

Sam's own personal smash cake:

And smash he did:

As you can see he totally loved his cake. He had a lot of fun getting frosting everywhere as well as eating quite a bit of the actual cake.

I'm really sorry about the LONG post, but now I have to go and get everyone ready for our friend Josh's birthday party at Pump-it-Up. Lord help us all,...