We began the One Year celebration with a Kansas party at my parents' house. I have a big extended family back home so I thought it was important, at least for his first birthday, to have a party where they could join in the fun too even though we live three hours away.
Here are some photos and highlights from the Kansas party.
The cake.
I know it's probaby pretty obvious, but I made this cake myself. It was a fairly small cake for the number of people I had invited, so I also made cupcakes (which my brother Daniel decorated). And, the cupcake is what Gabe got to enjoy.
And, enjoy he did!
In the hair!
His wonderful great aunts egged this on. Apparently, it's not a real first birthday unless the baby rubs it in the hair too.
Great Grandma Moore helps him finish up.
Reaching for the goods.
Big kids enjoying the goods.
Gabe had a lot of good help opening and enjoying his presents. He was a real trooper about it though. In his eyes cardboard is still just as much fun as the toy in the cardboard. I wonder when that stage ends....
On Gabe's actual birthday we had family and friends over to our house for supper and cake and ice cream. We had a great time celebrating. There aren't any pictures of the cake. I forgot to take some before I cut into it, but Nikki, who made the cake promises to send me pictures sometime. She also made cupcakes and a 6" round just for Gabe to dig in to. She used the same number one pan I did, but the decoration was much more professional than my attempt. I told her she needs to give me lessons.
Uhhh....am I supposed to eat this?
Are you sure?
Gabe was so tentative about eating the cake. I had to really encourage him to dive in. Not much of a mess was made. But he sure did eat quite a bit of it.
Drink break.
Look at how much of that cake is gone! And, it's not on the floor or his lap. It's all in his belly.
Opening presents with Great Grandma Willis....GG.
Presents!
More presents!
A card from Grandpa Dan Smith....
....all the way from South Padre!
Much better control from up here.
I think he likes it!
Actually, he had no idea the meaning of the picture of the trike. He really just likes pictures of babies, so he was smiling at the babies on the box.
Wheelie poppin'!
Casey and I purchased this trike for him. It goes from a very safe baby style trike to a full grown do it yourself trike. You just remove parts for the appropriate stages.
I debated for a long time on theme or no theme, and all kinds of other silly details. I even spent a couple of hours surfing the net one day looking for deals on themed parties. In the end I decided to go with just a simple celebration with family and friends. I did take about two hours to create a ten minute video slide show of pictures from Gabe's first year to play at our Oklahoma party. I think it'll be something he can cherish years from now. Besides being low cost, both parties were stress free and we just enjoyed hanging out with people who mean the most to us and to our son. I highly recommend low-key first birthday parties!
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