All American Birthday

Today my handsome, sweet, little boy turned 1! Where has the time gone? I mean really!!? He has learned how to wave, blow kisses (and give real slobbery ones too), give high-5's, walk and point to your nose. What a smart little cookie! To celebrate we invited a lot of friends over for cake, ice-cream, brownies and lots of fun. Most of the kids we invited are Rachel's friends but that's what you get when there are like no little babies his age around. For his friend party I made little baseball cupcakes and we decorated in red, white and blue with lots of stars. It turned out super cute! Before we sang Happy Birthday to Benjamin Rachel and Lauren had a little peek at the goodies. They didn't touch any of the food, don't worry about the finger ;)


While we sang Benjamin just stared and scowled at everyone. It seriously looked like he was going to cry any second. For such a happy, out going little guy it was strange. After singing he sat there for a while and again stared at the cupcake as if he was thinking "um, okay..." But after a little encouragement from me, Lauren and Regan he decided to poke it a little.

Then he poked it some more, then ripped it apart and eventually...

ate some along with some ice-cream. I think he ended up liking it (how can you not like sugar) becuase as he was eating it I could hear him going "mmmm!" He didn't get too messy either. Just a little frosting in his hair, some around his face and his hands were covered. But that was about it...sure makes my job easy ;) Rachel really enjoyed the cake too, she is such a ham!

Marc was our ice-cream man!

After eating our goodies we opened up some gifts. Benjamin didn't get much practice at opening them because Rachel and most of the other kids decided to do it for him. But it's what's inside that matters anyway, right? He liked this toy a lot. It's a little bopper penguin that plays music and makes silly sounds when you hit it. I think Rachel will get a kick out of it too...yes, pun intended! ;)

My mom sent him a Little People boat that you can put in water. He was super excited about this gift...as you can tell from the picture. Tonight when I gave the kiddos a bath it went into the water too, so it's already been christened!

The other kids loved it too. (I think it was the hit of the party!) They ended up taking it and playing with it until they left. Benjamin also got a Tonka truck to go with his other ones...or should I say Rachel's...she is such a toy hog! He also got a ball that is larger than he is but he loves it like crazy!

Here are the kiddos that helped us celebrate his 1st and his Golden Birthday. From left to right: Kaylenne (sitting in a chair holding Alden), Olivia (pink shirt), Shayla on her moms lap, Me, Benjamin, Regan, Ellie (holding flowers), her sister Sophie (who will turn 1 on the 13), Mark (Alden's dad), Brianna, Rachel, Lauren, Clara (cute polka dotted dress) and Aaron.

I like this picture of Rachel and Aaron. The kids had such a blast playing together. Sure there were some tears shed...sharing is such a hard job! But overall I think everything went well.