Yippee! It's Joshua's First Birthday Party!

On Saturday we celebrated Joshua's first birthday with all our family who loved him enough to come, except for Grandpa Georgia who called that morning to tell him he was thinking about him. Uncle Kevin & Aunt Missy were the first ones to arrive, as Daddy was still preparing the new grill we bought (we won't mention the fire that almost ignited on our sun porch...). Next came Poppy & Jordon, who was so excited for the party that he woke the Bean up from his nap. I was finishing up the last minute preparations of food - which included bacon cheeseburgers with all the fixin's, hotdogs, homemade macaroni salad, baked beans with bacon, apple slices, a veggie tray and individual bags of doritos & sunchips. Everything fit pretty well on our folding table and my mom's, which she had brought over earlier. We also had two coolers (thanks, Nonie & Poppy for letting us borrow yours!) stocked with drinks from water to soda to juice and even iced tea and chocolate milk. The Elmo decorations were in place from balloons on the mailbox and his high chair to banners in the living room and over the food table on the sunporch, etc. As I was finishing up, Great Grandma Good arrived and so did Nonie & Aunt Hilary. Soon thereafter was Uncle Brian, Aunt Gayle & Grant. Next came our friends Greg & Suzanne from New Jersey, where they recently moved after Greg finished up his doctorate at Harvard - he's now doing his post-doc at Princeton University. Then my side of the family arrived - Aunt Becky, Uncle Tim, Grandma, Grandpa Jamie, Great Aunt Karen, Aunt Jen, Uncle Mike and Grace, Faith, Emma & Daniel. It was a full house!


We started outside, even though it was a little chilly. Everyone participated in a word find of Joshua's favorite things from his first year of life with words like "ceiling fans, tv remotes, peekaboo, green beans, dogs, balls" etc. Greg cracked me up because some of the pens I dug out didn't work, but he came with his pockets fully stocked to lend one where it was needed. Uncle Tim won the prize of an Elmo bucket filled with candy and a lottery ticket. Then it was time to eat. Poppy took the place of honor grilling for Shawn since he had been feeling under the weather, and the food was delicious, even though the burgers were gi-normous! We had bought them pre-made from Costco and I think they were much too big to eat gracefully. Everyone sat outside in our backyard in their lawnchairs, ate, watched the kids play and talked.


Once almost everyone was finished we brought out the Bean's birthday cake and sang to him. He looked at the cake and dipped his first hand in. (See the progression below). Yum... he was very gentle at first, scooping up icing and putting it to his lips. Then, he began getting more and more. Soon, Daddy said "So big!" and Joshua put his hands to his head. From there it was all over - cake & icing was everywhere. It covered his outfit, the highchair and his body. So, thankfully my sister Jen helped cut the cake and my mom scooped the icecream and my sister Becky helped serve our guests the larger cake as Shawn gave the Bean a bath and I made coffee and cleaned up the food that needed to be refridgerated. I also had lots of help with that, too, which was so sweet. Everyone was amazingly nice and helpful, from Bonnie throwing Joshua's cake clothes straight into the washing machine and helping clean up cake off the bathroom floor to Gayle offering to clean up the high chair to Mike putting food into smaller containers so it would all fit back into our fridge.
After cake & icecream, the sun was starting to go down and the wind was starting to pick up, so we decided to open gifts inside. My brothers-in-law Mike & Tim and Shawn helped get Jamie inside in his wheelchair and Joshua greeted the party in his PJ's, fresh from his bath. He sat on my lap and "read" the cards as I opened his gifts. Some day he'll be able to open his own presents! He was blessed with so many nice things from books to shoes to clothes to a potty seat to eating equipment to toys to money for college and more! All the kiddos started enjoying his gifts, including the cars/trains and books. Joshua was happy that everyone could have fun at his party.Thank you to everyone who came to make the day special for him. We will never forget it. Hooray for the Bean!