Eli's First Bday Party

Even though he doesn't officially turn One until Thursday, we had Eli's family birthday party yesterday. We ended up having to cook the hamburgers inside, since something is wrong with the grill. Made the kitchen area hot and Doug was covered in grease from being the fry cook, but they sure tasted good! Bought the meat in already-shaped patties, which means it was only 73% lean, not good for the heart but good on the taste buds that's for sure. Picked up the cake that morning, and had a little surprise - the "one" cake topper was PINK. The baker lady said she thought his name was "Ellie" and the cake was for a girl! I just laughed and asked if she would be able to change it, and she was very apologetic and obliging, she quickly made a new blue and green cake topper for us. I have never ordered a cake like this before, it was fun going to a bakery and discussing how it would look, etc. Well, I guess we did that with our wedding cake - so this was the first time for a birthday cake. Eli loved having all the cousins and friend Meredith over; they kept him running! He was so exhausted by the time we got to the cake part - you'll see how tired he looks in the pictures, poor thing! He only slept about 30 minutes after the cake session, I suppose because he could still hear all the people downstairs; later on when I tried to put him down for a nap (after everyone left), it was as though we missed the Nap Window, and he refused to sleep. Still on a sugar-high, maybe?! But, he did "sleep in" this morning until 6:30, so that was something! I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do, being the hostess and picture taker is kind of hard, but I think I was able to get a decent representation of his first birthday party. Enjoy the pictures!

The banner I made of pictures, one from every month since last September.

Saw on Etsy.com how folks made these "high chair banners," and was going to put it on his chair, but then figured he would just rip it off so it went on the mantle.

The cake! The bottom layer has edible paper on it - I emailed the baker a digital image of the paper I used on his invitation (and banner), and she made edible paper out of it. The white icing was smooth buttercream, much tastier than fondant in my opinion! The dots on the top layer were fondant, so just enough fondant to add some cuteness, but not mess up flavor.

The party favors were "one" shaped cookies.

This is such a cute picture of my brother and Eli, I just had to post it too.

Loved how the cousins would play with him!

Had to post the crying picture. Bless his heart. A very tired baby wearing a hat he didn't want to wear. He left it on long enough for us to sing Happy Birthday, then I ended the torture and took it off.

Hey! Everyone is singing and now there's a cake in front of me...this is odd...

Now that's some tasty stuff!

This toy (from grandma) was the biggest hit. He walked around the house with it several times, and later in the afternoon we let him walk outside with it. I think this is the toy that is going to teach him to walk sooner than later!

Concentrating hard.

Cute little feet! Guess it's time for shoes!