Moving On

Micah had no idea what was going on, but the rest of us were busily setting up for his first birthday party at my parents' house a few Saturdays ago. The theme of the party was trains, so the decorations followed that and so did Micah's outfit. The conductor hat didn't stay on very long, but we managed a few pictures!

Let's see, where to start? Here, look at some pictures and then I'll narrate...




There's his outfit. He looked too cute walking around looking like a conductor the whole party. I put a few boxes together to make a train for the kids. Kids love boxes, for some reason, but they're cheap and easy to play with, so you won't find me complaining.








The decorations were just enough to make it look like a party, but not enough that we had to spend mountains of time putting them up. What I didn't make, I got at the Dollar Store, just how I like it: cheap and easy. I made the Month-Old Train of all the pictures I took at his month-old birthdays. I'm not sure if you can see it in the pictures, but the food table had a train track around it. I made it by cutting strips of black construction paper and gluing them to the tablecloth. Then we set up food trains like the Chip Train, the Veggie Train, etc. I put out his baby book, D made up a picture slideshow on his Mac, Dad compiled some other pictures and put them on the digital photo frame. I found a picture frame from Baby Gund for $3 that sings Happy Birthday whenever anyone walks in front of it. In the future, I'm going to put it out a week before the birthday person's bday with a picture of him/her from that year. Mom had the idea to put out my belly pictures that she made for my baby shower and add a newborn picture of M. And we put up a few balloons here and there. Oh, and I bought little plants for everyone to take home with them, but they were part of the decorations, too. Took me back to my kindergarten teacher days. I loved it :). I'm not much for store-bought decorations, I always had the kids make things to decorate our classroom with for the different holidays.






The being-self-conscious-of-people-singing-Happy-Birthday-to-you starts so early. Micah's reaction to 30 people singing and staring at him was kind of funny. First, he looked at each and every person with a perplexed expression on his face. Then, he randomly started blowing kisses to everyone (which he has never done before). And then he plastered that self-conscious smile on his face until his daddy took him in for The Blow. Of course he didn't blow the candle out because when you ask him to blow, he scrunches his face and sniffs IN very forcefully. Anyway, it was a fun experience. The present-opening time was interesting. He was in desperate need of a nap, but everyone, per usual, was very generous so there were tons of presents to open. The first one that he saw was a little wooden wagon my grandma's sister (M's great-great aunt) gave him and that was all he needed. He wheeled that into his playroom where the other kids were and there he happily stayed until we retrieved him to open a few more gifts. He got a lot of wooden puzzles, some clothing, a few other toys, and some books that he's loving. Uncle Ry and Auntie Yana got him a wooden train from Melissa and Doug that both he and his daddy like to play with! After presents, he went down for a two-hour nap. Great way to end his first birthday party experience!


I wasn't about to spend $15-$20 on a junk-filled store-bought cake, so I made a gingerbread cake with cream cheese frosting for our little man. I had been toying with the idea of a cake mold, but then you have to frost it and make it look all pretty which was going to be way too time-and-money-consuming. So I bought an alphabet train set that can be used post-party and spelled out his name. I had originally intended to put the train on the cake, but found it worked better to put tracks around the cake and put the train there. I also set out peaches and whipped cream to go with the cake.



This is M having his cake the next day because he went straight for a nap!



My aunt bought chalk for M, so adults and kids alike had fun playing with it on the driveway. And I bought a paintable wooden train photo frame as a craft for the kids. His cousins Ari and Aiden and Ana are busily working on theirs. Anie painted one for M, since I can only imagine what would happen if he and paint got together!

Other observations: M was constantly eating for the entire two hours of the party. People kept handing him food...and he kept eating it!

D was such a big help. Dads don't usually get involved in party-planning, but he was an active participate and a huge help in the party prep.

Mom and Dad are awesome, as always. They, too, helped from beginning to end. Not sure if there are any other parents as supportive as mine, but I hope other kids are as blessed as the six of us (well, seven including Micah...well, eight including Micah's cousin...)!

I had family back over on Tuesday night, Micah's actual birthday, for some cake and snacks. I'll post about that later...