We had Nathan's birthday party on Saturday with a jungle theme. I had my minions...er...I mean family...help with the set up and, let me tell you, I would never have been able to get everything ready without them. My brother Cantrell was especially helpful. He helped Jimmy set up the canopy outside, blew up the "big kid" pool and filled that and the baby pool up with water. He also set up chairs and tables, swept up grass tracked in the kitchen and kept Nathan out from underfoot. Lori and Mom (aka Lolo and Grammy) alternatively played with Nathan and helped me set out food and put up the balloons and other decorations.
The night before Nathan's party we went down the to-do list (well of course I had a list...do you even know me?!). One of the items on the agenda was making tissue paper floofy balls (their technical name) to put on the ceiling. Here are a few pictures of the floofy ball sweat shop.
Nathan celebrated the day of his party by waking up first at 1:30am then again at 5:00am and finally 7:00am. Clearly he was extra excited about seeing all of his friends and opening presents. Aunt Ashley made Nathan a mini-wardrobe for the day. He started the morning in this precious shirt. I love the little lion!
While we waited for people to arrive we all hung out in the living room and kitchen and snacked and talked. We had snacks on the island and the fixings for a build your own sandwich on the counter.
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| Kylee (who turned 1 on the 7th, the day of Nathan's party!) |
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| Nathan and Papa Joe |
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| Nathan and Matt (Aunt Misty's husband) |
After most of our guests arrived we moved the shenanigans outside to the pools. We had 3 one year old little kids and 5 other kids ranging in age from 2 to 8! Those "big kids" got their own blow up pool to splash around in and act crazy (they did not disappoint). I was really happy that they all co-existed in harmony with no major meltdowns. The little ones, on the other hand, were not so harmonious. In their defense, the water was pretty cold and we had them in the shade most of the time so they wouldn't get sunburned. For Nathan and Rylan, as long as they were the only one in the pool all was well, but evidently there was a sharing problem. Kylee simply wasn't having the cold water. Ironically all the kids love to take baths and so this was a great plan in theory at least. On the plus side, we managed to wear out the big kids and keep them occupied until it was time for lunch and cake.
After playing in the swimming pool for a few minutes (literally) we changed him into this shirt for, you guessed it, CAKE!
Speaking of cake, here is another look at the cake and Nathan's "smash cake." They were made by my dear friend and co-worker Carolyn and her husband Andy. Who knew that auditors had latent artistic tendencies?! The cake was so amazing and also very moist and yummy! We got tons and tons of compliments on it. Here's a snapshot of the talented couple!
Then we got to the most picture-worthy point of the day...Nathan's cake. After we sang happy birthday and blew out the candle I cut a small triangle in his cake so he could see that there was something inside. He then proceeded to pick off the top icing and sprinkles and eat only that, nothing else. I fed him one small piece of actual cake to try and entice him with no luck. All we had to do after he was done was brush him off a little. Crazy kid.
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| Mommy and Nathan either blowing kisses or making silly sounds with our mouth! |
Allen then reminded us that we hadn't done the pinata yet! I was so scatterbrained that day. Jimmy and Allen promptly tied it up to the tree in the front yard and we had all the kids pull on one of the ribbons. One of them was supposed to open the bottom up and let out the goodies (fruit snacks, stickers, stick on tattoos, crayons and small egg candies). Somehow we managed to get a defective pinata, but Papa Joe came to the rescue with a pocket knife and Jimmy and Drew got the thing opened up for the kids.
At this point I also realized we had kind of forgotten to open presents. Luckily Nathan was oblivious, so we took a pretty leisurely approach to getting everything opened. He got some really great gifts, including toys, clothes and do-it-yourself gifts (aka gift card and cash). Tyley was a big help in opening, un-packaging and playing with his presents. I don't think I got pictures of everything, but here are a few.
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| "When Mom says 'No' Call 1-800-PAPA JOE, ext BOO" (Boo is what the grandkids call Annie Jo) |
After everyone left, Jimmy and cousin Allen (my nephew) started to put together Nathan's gift from Lolo (his truck). The thing took several hours to put together, but after much help and supervision, it got finished. Nathan really loves his truck and we now spend our evenings taking turns pushing him around the house and front yard!
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| Jimmy was hammering on the truck to get a piece to snap in so Nathan got his hammer and "helped." |
All in all we had a wonderful day. Nathan was tuckered out after the party, but only took a 20 minute nap between his party and Kylee's party that evening. Mommy and daddy were exhausted but luckily mom, Kelley and Cantrell were still around to corral Nathan.
Side note: you might notice that Lolo, Momo and Popo all drop out of the pictures around cake eating time. Grandpa (Popo) hadn't been feeling very good since that morning, so they took him to the ER just to make sure everything was okay. He ended up getting admitted and stayed in the hospital until Monday. Thankfully, no surgery was ultimately required for his condition (as was originally planned) and as an added bonus the cardiologist identified a previously unknown heart condition that they will now be able to monitor and treat effectively (hooray). So a little stressful addition to the weekend, but everything worked out in the end (thank you to friends and the Katy church of Christ for prayers).
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