A Big Man Birthday Bash...kind of.

Well,
.....{sigh}....
We had Luke's birthday party last Saturday. It started at 5 pm, and the plan was to have a big cookout in the backyard. We invited a bunch of families and planned on having tons of fun playing, cooking, and eating outside. I (with help from my sister, Anne, and friend, Carli) put lots of time and effort into making decorations, buying/borrowing toys and things to play with outside, and making the desserts and sides. We were so excited for this party.....
And then we woke up on Saturday to the crummiest weather ever! The temperature had dropped about 20 degrees (I'm not exaggerating. It was in the low 50's!), the wind gusts were ridiculous, and it was sprinkling on and off all day long. BOO HISS!!! We were so bummed. We had no choice but to move the party indoors, and since we don't have a giant downstairs, we had to set up the tables in the dingy garage. Not what I had envisioned for Luke's first birthday party. It all ended up working out, but I can't lie---it was somewhat of a let-down. Lots of people couldn't make it at the last minute, but that ended up being okay, since we were now all stuck in the garage. Those that did show up were very kind and flexible and didn't seem to mind eating in the same place we park our cars. We managed to have fun, but most importantly Luke had a lot of fun. He played and played with all the "big kids" and seemed to have a blast....until cupcake time, that is! Thanks to all of our friends who showed up and celebrated our Big Man's first year with us. It was a special time, despite the kinks in our plans, and we are so grateful to you all for being a part of the party and a part of our lives!!

Here are some pictures and details from the party. Since we have always called Luke "Big Man", we wanted to have a "Big Man" birthday party. I used neckties and mustaches to carry out our theme. It was such a fun theme and so cute (well, as cute as possible in a garage)!

I don't have any pictures of the invitations, but they were striped in the colors I used for his party (teal, turquoise, and lime green), and I glued onto each one a necktie that I cut out of turquoise cardstock. On the inside I wrote the details of the where/when/what on one side and this poem on the other:

We can't believe it,
But Luke is turning 1!
He's a BIG MAN now,
and the fun's just begun....
So throw on a necktie
And run a comb through your 'stache.
Then come and join us
for a BIG MAN birthday
BASH!!

This make-shift wreath greeted our guests and gave them a laugh.

It's made out of a paper plate, ribbon, crepe streamers, felt and cardstock.


The dessert table.


The cupcake stand.
(My awesome sister baked every single one of these cupcakes, with a little help from our neighbor Katie. THANK YOU, ANNE!)


Necktie sugar cookies.
They were super yummy, if I do say so myself.
(Thank you Anne and Carli for helping me make/decorate all the cookies!!)


Mustache sugar cookies with chocolate icing....and you can also see the chocolate mustache lollipops that were scattered around the table.


And speaking of chocolate lollipops, here is a picture of Luke during the lollipop making process...


...And Daddy, too!


The necktie banner made from Goodwill ties and cast offs from my dad and Carli's husband, Joel.
(This would have been SO much cuter hung up outside under our harbor, with the beautiful wisteria as a backdrop. Boo-hoo.)


Anne and I painted this "frame" which held tons of pictures of the Big Man from the past year.
(Our garage walls = G.R.O.S.S.)


A happy birthday banner made of paper plates and crepe streamers. (It also would have been much cuter hung up outside in our backyard.)


A view of the necktie banner and tables with buckets full of felt mustaches on sticks.


Another view of the tables and picture frame.


My handsome, goofy husband with a necktie napkin.


Jake modeling his necktie napkin.


Luke's buddy Anthony hard at play.


My living room full of our awesome neighbors. I love it!


The Big Man wore his own necktie that my mom and I made for him using a real tie and this tutorial.


Such a stud muffin.


Busy man taking apart a refrigerator magnet during his party.

My sis and I also made a million different mustaches on sticks. I found some great templates that I used and ended up with 13 different styles.


Jake and his Super Mario mustache.


Dominic with a Luigi mustache.


Silly Katie with yet another 'stache.
(Can you tell that they were a big hit?)


Even some of the big kids enjoyed the mustaches.


Jackson could have cared less about the mustaches. He was busy playing with the wagon full of balls and the big plastic bowl that he kept wearing like a hat.


Poor guy had a broken leg, but walked and played like a champ!


Luke and Marcus hard at work. The punching balloons were a super-smart purchase from the Dollar Tree. Little boys love punching balloons!


Luke enjoyed chewing on the bubbles while the big kids blew them.


Our neighbor Meghan helped me out a ton by feeding Luke his dinner.


After dinner we stripped Luke down in preparation for his blue cupcake. We all sang him "Happy Birthday", and he totally freaked out by the end of the song. I guess it scared him that we were all suddenly making a ton of noise while staring right at him.


This was during the song. Not a happy birthday boy. Notice the tears on his face.


Marcus helped us blow out Luke's candle. Luke was in total freak-out mode at this point.


Sweet Marcus was trying to explain to Luke that it was just a cupcake and that it was yummy.


Luke wasn't buying it.


He DID NOT like the 2 bites of cupcake that I forced him to have.


Look at that face. NOT HAPPY.


He decided to taste the candle to see if that was better...


Bad idea!


Gerber Lil' Crunchies to the rescue!!!
Luke couldn't be more addicted to these things if they were crack cocaine.


Clapping because he has his crunchies.


Daddy provided some comic relief by holding up different mustaches and speaking in (what he thought was) the appropriate accent.


A little Fu Manchu action for the Big Man.


This cracks me up.


Now it's Daddy's turn.


After the cupcake fiasco, Luke wanted to hang with Mommy for a little while and entertained himself by pulling all of the shredded paper filling out of the centerpieces.


By the time the last guests were saying goodbye, it was an hour past bed time and it certainly showed!

In other news, my sister was here for Luke's party and helped me out SO MUCH. I could not have pulled it off without her! Unfortunately, I was a loser and got practically no pictures of her with Luke. Seriously, I got 3. Two of which are below and the 3rd will never be posted on this blog for fear of her disowning me if I did!


Wearing pj's and flying on Annie's legs...


Oh what fun!!!

Thanks so much to Anne, Carli, the Barnes family, the Schrock family, my mom, and my mother-in-law for all of the help and/or contributions to Luke's party. I am so grateful!

Easter Funness.

Easter was so much fun this year with our little man. I made him a little Easter basket out of a blue metal bucket that I painted with polka dots and Luke's name. I filled it with a few goodies from Phil and me and a few from my parents. I set it out at Luke's seat the night before and hid 8 Cheerio-filled eggs around the kitchen, since that's Luke's favorite place to crawl.


Luke's Easter basket. Flipper and Pops found an Incredible Hulk ball for our Baby Hulk. Too funny!

When I put Luke in his seat on Easter morning, he was very excited to see his goodies. He immediately grabbed the Slinky Jr. box and went to town chewing, all the while keeping his hand on his new ball. We couldn't get him to look through the rest of the goodies!


Oooooooh...what is this??


Yummy!


Givin' the Hulk some love.

Finally after a few minutes of coercing, we got Luke to keep looking through his basket, er...bucket.


Ooooh...one of my faves, a yellow ducky!!


Why does my baby look like a 2 year old in this picture??

After Luke got a good look through his bucket o' goodies, we set him down on the floor to start the search for the "hidden" eggs....Once again, he was perfectly happy to just sit and play with his Slinky.


Wow. This is even better outside of the box!

It took a while, but he finally went for an egg.


What is this over here??

He found the first egg and shook it. He thought this was pretty cool until he saw the Slinky again.


Man, this thing is just so sweet!


Finally going for a second egg.


What? There are 2 of these things?

After finding a few eggs, Luke was super content to just sit and bang the eggs together. He was especially excited when the banging led to the release of Cheerios onto the floor... Fun new eggs and a snack, too!


Yum-o!

It was kind of like torture trying to get Luke to keep "hunting" for eggs. I was pointing them out, and they were all very easy to see, but he was having a great time and had no interest whatsoever in continuing to collecting them. He got the fourth egg, and then wouldn't go after the rest.


Number 4. Found.


Going for the best part, the Cheerios.

I eventually gave up on him finding the rest and just collected them all and put them in front of him...


He LOVED shaking them, banging them together, and throwing them. He could have sat there and played forever, but I needed to get in the shower and he needed to eat, so the morning festivities came to an end!


Later that morning we went to church. It was a great service. I, of course, forgot my camera, so I have no pics of us at the Easter service. Later in the afternoon, we went to my friend Carli's house for some more Easter fun. Several of our friends who don't have family in town got together at the Mellentine's (that's Carli's) house for a big Easter egg hunt outside and a DELICIOUS dinner.


Luke got to hang out in Anthony's walker. He loved being independent and getting to go where all the other kids went. We loved not having to try to hold the wiggliest kid in the world all night.

Luke's biggest fan, Ava, was there. She was SOOOOO excited to see him because she hadn't seen him in weeks.


Ava greeted Luke with lots of hugs and kisses. Anthony greeted Luke by hopping on the back of his walker for a ride!


Wherever Luke went, Ava was never far away...


Is that Anthony kid still back there?


In a moment of freedom, Luke goes to town slapping the bench.


And then Ava was back....trying to force Luke to stay in her lap....


...Too bad Luke weighs more than she does! HAHAHA!!!

The easter egg hunt in the yard was adorable. The babies got to go first, while the big kids "patiently" watched and waited inside.



Found it!


Dropped it!


Going for egg # 2.


What is that I see?


Where the heck are the Cheerios??


Finding another one!


Heck yeah, dude...I got 2 more!


Yay for me!!


Daddy walking around the yard, helping Lukie find more. (This is how Luke is every single time that you hold him. He turns his entire torso and faces out and is impossible to hold...that is why it looks like Phil is yanking his arm off! He's just trying not to drop him.)


Lukie gets another one!


Once he found all 10 of his eggs, he wouldn't let go of them. He LOVES his eggs. Here he is standing on his own in front of my friend Alisha.


As Alisha, Phil, and I stood and talked, Luke took each of his eggs out of his bucket one by one and dropped them on the ground.


Reunited with his dropped eggs.


Oooooh, M & M's! These are way better than Cheerios!


Hey!!! How do you open this thing??


Well if you're not gonna open it, then I'll just do it myself!

We had a wonderful Easter and hope you did too.
Thank you, Jesus, for dying for us and rising again to give us the gift of eternal life with you!!