Mikey's Birthday Party

We had Mikey's first birthday party on Sunday and it was a BLAST!  I've been to a few other first birthday parties and sometimes the 1 year old gets overwhelmed and fussy, so I wasn't really sure how it would go.  Mikey did great!  He didn't have any fits, stayed up the whole time, and even paid close attention to Brian's birthday video from Afghanistan.  Mikey even sat there and "opened" 95% of his gifts.  He received some really great things and I think its safe to say that I'm stumped on what to buy this child for Christmas!  He may be getting a lot of clothes and rewrapped birthday gifts.

Click HERE to watch Brian's video
Click HERE to watch Mikey watching Brian's video

We did a Hungry Caterpillar theme which seemed to be a big hit.  I made all of the decorations myself.  I'll do a post soon on how I made everything.  Even though it was incredibly time consuming, I'm glad I made everything because it made decorating pretty inexpensive so that I was able to spend a little more money on food and cake.  I pretty much followed the book for food.  We had deviled eggs, apples, pears, plums, strawberries, oranges, watermelon, salad, turkey and swiss cheese mini sandwiches, salami and swiss mini sandwiches, pickles, cake, cupcakes, ice cream that never got served, hamburgers, and lollipops for goody bags.  I have seen a few blogs that do "How to's" on how to throw this party or that...so if anyone is interested please let me know and I will do a more specific blog on how exactly I did the party.

Mikey really enjoyed playing with his friends and new toys.  We had several guests from out of town and it absolutely meant the world to me that they were there.  My grandma and uncle drove all the way from Indiana to represent our family there.  Not only did they make the drive, but they helped tremendously with food preparation on Sunday morning.  Joe and Anna came all the way from Ft Benning/Ft Stewart in Georgia and also helped Sunday morning.  I wouldn't have been able to do it without any of them.  Maddi drove in from Maryland after completing the LSAT on Saturday and brought a friend with her.  In addition to all of our out of town guests, we had many old friends attend the party.  It felt so wonderful to have so many people there supporting us and loving Mikey, especially since we were missing Brian so much.  I know he appreciates all the love and support from everyone that was there.

The day was a huge success and the mountain of toys sitting in the basement are a huge reminder of what generous and loving friends we have.  Thank you all so much for being part of such a special and important day!