So Many New Toys...

William was so lucky to get so many new toys for his birthday! Robbie and I spent a lot of time on Monday putting things together while he napped. These are just a few of his new toys that he is enjoying playing with.

VHC rocker from Mama and Daddy is a big hit!

Love the caterpillar (Riley likes it too!)

Pillow racer from Grandma and Grandpa

Cozy Coupe from Nana

Pirate ship from Stephanie! We like to play Jake and the Neverland Pirates

Fire station from Ashley, Willie, and Molly!

Puzzle from Randi!

Slide from Papa

William's 1st Birthday Party!!!

William had the best 1st birthday party! We had such a great time. All of the months (since he was about 2 months old;) ) of planning were all worth it! About 50 people turned out to celebrate our sweet boy! We decided to do his party at the clubhouse in our neighborhood, which was perfect! It was the perfect amount of space.

The party started at 2 and we had chicken salad sandwiches, meatballs, fresh fruit, and pigs in a blanket. We also had the most wonderful cake from Edible Art. They did such a great job with what pictures I took to them!

It was very laid back. People just came in and hung out and ate. Ashley made us a caterpillar cut-out on plywood and painted it so the kids could stick their heads through. It actually was a big hit, surprisingly! We didn't have any games, just William's rocking Very Hungry Caterpillar that was our gift to him!

About an hour in, we opened all of his gifts. He actually showed interest in them! Robbie and I did the opening, just to speed things along. Everyone was SO generous!!! He is a lucky boy and we are set on toys for a while! He got a ton of walking/ride-on/climb toys!

We then cut the cake. William smashed the cake forever. He was not SO into it. The cake was delicious besides being gorgeous. Edible Art has never disappointed. Our favors for the kids were in the Very Hungry Caterpillar reusable bags I found at Target. Each bag had VHC crayons, a VHC coloring sheet, the VHC board book, and a lollipop from Oriental Trading with a sticker that said "Thanks for inching by my party. Love, William". We also had the lollipops for adults too. ;)

I got a ton of stuff from Etsy! His invites, thank you cards, food tents, favor stickers, party stickers and centerpiece signs were all from this shop. Jennifer does a great job and answered a TON of questions from me! His banner was also from Etsy (Pickles N Pinwheels) and photo banner (62Cards). His highchair banner, bib, tshirt, and bloomer from his cake smash were from Munsker & Roo. His hat was from Dainty Couture. I actually did a lot of the printing, cutting, putting together myself, which is not like me. I do not have a creative bone in my body. But it was a lot of fun! His centerpieces were made with supplies from the One spot at Target, Dollar Tree, and Michael's. Probably the best money spent for the entire party was our photographer, Courtenay. She has taken pictures of William since he was a week old! It was so nice knowing that she was taking all of the pictures, and I just had to talk to people and have a good time. It was like our wedding, haha! Lots of people to talk to, and no time to take pictures! I usually would have been stressed making sure I took pictures of everything. She took a ton of great ones!! I will be posting all of them in a separate post, once I get the CD. She sent me a sneak peek, and I posted them below!

William didn't want for any attention, that is for sure! He just got passed from person to person. He actually did really well, considering the party started about the time his nap usually starts. He was kind of just overwhelmed with everyone talking to him and he was just quiet and staring around. It was a great day of laughing and catching up with friend we hadn't seen in a while, and celebrating William!!

He loves his caterpillar!

The VHC book was the guest book, and we framed something telling people to sign. We also had pictures from his 12  month shoot and his painting from his bathroom. The suckers were the adult favors.

So many gifts!

Love the photo banner

William, Hannah, and me

William loves Molly!

Molly in the caterpillar

William and Nana

Plates from the Eric Carle museum online. Loved them!

William and Papa

Mama, Caroline, and Hannah

Ready to open presents!

Barbara made a gorgeous frame using his birth announcement!

Trucks!

Ella, Christie, Mama, Barbara, William, me

Tiffany, Breanne, and Randi

Ready to smash cake!

Tiffany and me

Randi and me

Noemie taking a ride

Cooper

Breanne

Jeremiah

Courtenay Bickler Photography

Courtenay Bickler Photography

Courtenay Bickler Photography

Courtenay Bickler Photography

Weekend Rewind {Sept. 21-24}

We had an extremly busy weekend!! Thank goodness we both took Monday off to recover! ;)

Friday: Robbie worked late so we had him in the morning! William loved watching him play the Wii. Our sweet friend Jane from EC who works with my dad, sent William the cutest birthday gift!! It is a personalized puzzle. He loved it! We tried to show him how to put it together, and he throws the pieces about where they should be. ;) I ran lots of errands for his party.

Saturday: This was William's official first birthday!!!! When I went in to get him, he was all smiles! Sorry for the blurry picture, ugh! I fixed him a birthday breakfast of granola waffle and peaches. I left him with Mama around 9 and met the guy at the clubhouse to go over everything and see where I could add tables, etc. I scooted to Chick Fil A for some breakfast before picking up Hannah. I had to take something back to a store, get tablecloths from Party City, and pick up the highly anticipated cake from Edible Art!! I was so hoping it would turn out the way I wanted. They had never made a VHC cake before, and I gave them two images to basically merge. The cake turned out GREAT!!! I loved it! Robbie's parents got here around 2:30 and Leroy and Jeremiah stayed home with a napping William while Linda and I ran to Sam's Club to pick up water and chicken salad. We came back home and Robbie got off at 5:30. We went to Outback for dinner with Mama, Hannah, Stephanie, her dad, Jeremiah, Linda, Leroy, and Robbie, William and myself. It was delicious as usual. We had to run to Ashley and Willie's to pick up the chairs and tables to borrow. We finally made it home around 9:30 and put William to bed. We were all beat and had a long day ahead of us!!

Turning one is exhausting!

Sunday: Party day!!! We had a busy morning of setting up the clubhouse. Mama stayed with William so that he could get a longgggg nap since he wouldn't get an afternoon nap. Linda, Leroy, Hannah, Robbie and I headed to set things up. Everyone was so helpful! Robbie scooted to Harris Teeter to pick up the fruit tray. When we were putting it up, I realized they had put VEGGIE dip in it instead of fruit dip!! I called HT and the nice guy offered to bring the right dip to our house. Thank goodness because I was just on EDGE and this was one more thing!! We then ordered pizzas and Robbie, Linda and I went to pick those up and get balloons. When we got back to the clubhouse, it was crunch time! We grabbed a slice of pizza and went to work! My friend Jennifer was there making chicken salad sandwiches with her homemade rolls and heating up her meatballs! Ashley arrived with the pigs in a blanket. We had to get William dressed and he finished eating. I barely had time to get dressed and put on makeup, haha! As we were tying balloons to the outside of the clubhouse, my MIL and Robbie both thought they had their hands on them, and two balloons went flying in the sky. I was LOLing but Linda started crying!!! I think she realized how stressed I was and how I wanted things to go smoothly and be right! I was like please tell me you are not crying over these balloons!!! Thankfully, that was our ONLY hitch the whole day. We did realize right before William smashed his cake that we didn't have a lighter, but OH well!! I am doing a whole separate blog post on his party, but it definitely went great! We had so many people come out and celebrate our boy!! After it was over, Robbie's parents were a huge help and helped us pack stuff up and clean the clubhouse and they hit the road back to Moyock! We grabbed dinner at Mexican since we were all starving and wanted something quick.

Driving Nana's car!

Monday: Robbie and I both took Monday off. William was exhausted and slept until 9 am! This would usually be great, but we had to be out the door by 10:30 to get to W's 12 month checkup! So he had a special treat- breakfast in bed while Mama and Daddy got ready, ha! We made it to his appt and he checked out GREAT. We are so blessed!! We went to lunch at Zaxby's afterwards. William was ready for his afternoon nap after that, following this weekend of no consistency haha! He slept for 3 hours, which gave Robbie and I plenty of time to put together all of his toys but one. We did the Cozy Coupe (Which comes with a VIDEO of instructions), train table, pirate ship, fire station, and pillow racer. We had Golden Corral for dinner and got ready to start our week!!

Looking at turtles before seeing Dr. Willey

Let me help you with that, Daddy