Parker's Party

No first birthday is complete without a celebration!

We started the morning with dedicating Parker at our church service.

Baby dedication is really more about the parents than the baby, but we see it as an important step of aligning ourselves with our Church and the community that Parker will be growing up in.  (come to think of it, 1st birthday parties are more about the parents too, guess that was the theme of the day)

Then it was time for a party!  This banner idea (like most of my ideas) was, of course, stolen from Rebekah Gough.

This banner however, was entirely my own idea, so I'm quite proud of it.  Not so proud of the photo though, sorry you can't read it.  By the time I was cutting out the third "P", I was wishing I had a cricut (that was true for most of the crafts I did for the party).

The ice balloon idea came from Good Housekeeping.  They were a fun idea, but the balloons didn't last very well, so we quickly had giant balls of ice with balloon carcasses scattered about.  But either way, I didn't have to buy ice, and the kids thought they were the coolest thing ever.

At least, untl they saw the cupcakes.

I might have gone a little crazy on the baking.  But what's the point of a party without baked goods?

I finally found the cake decorating store that I seemed to have misplaced, so I got the right frosting tip to do my cupcakes.  They turned out pretty awesome, in my (not-so-) humble opinion.

We had about a dozen kids at the party, but with our awesome back yard, there was plenty of room for all.

Cousin Wesley was trying out the stairs.

Parker's cousin Sarah:

and Auntie Rosemary:

Fortunately, Parker had plenty of friends & family around.  I plunked him down with his lunch and then ran off for probably half an hour doing other things.  Good thing Grandma was there to make sure he was doing okay.

Parker loved the bubbles.  Not blowing them so much as dunking his hands in the soapy water.  I'm not sure we needed to use soap in his bedtime bath, since at one point his entire head was covered in bubbles.

Time for cake!  Parker got his own cake.  I wasn't sure how he'd take to the cake, so I covered it with raspberries to make sure he'd dig in.

Ooh, flame, that looks fun to touch (good thing Daddy was close by).

As expected, Parker went straight for the raspberries.

Even to the point of dumping the cake off the plate to get to the rest of the raspberries.

But eventually, Parker discovered that cake is just bread with gooey stuff on it, and he dug in.

Time for clean-up!

I don't think that tiny washcloth is going to cut it.

That's better.

The pool was a hit.

Somehow, Kelly found Parker a onesie with a bicycle on it.  I should have sent her on the hunt for Parker's nursery decor last year.

Fun party everyone!  Let's do it again next year!