Happy Birthday, Cole!!

Guess what happened this weekend? Little Cole bear turned 1!!!!

We decided to not have as big of a 1st birthday party as Addie had (there were just under 30 people) mostly because I tend to be a stressball about these things lately and what fun is that? So with the guilt of having a small, family-only shindig instead, I decided that he needed a super cool "theme" for his party--so we decided on a "Moo Baa La La La" theme. For those who are confused and don't know what that means, a cool author named Sandra Boynton has written a ton of great kids books and songs and Cole's favorite Boynton book is Moo Baa La La La. He giggles through the whole book every time--it's adorable. Sooo....theme established, we set out to make it an adorable party!


First off, party favors! Since there were only 3 kids in attendance, the favors could be big. I made t-shirts for the kiddos. Cole was Moo, Julie was Baa, and Addie was La La La

Next--what party is complete without party hats?? So I printed out some of the animals from the book and pasted them on these shiny blue party hats. Rock ON.

The cake--I had it in my head that the cake would look like the cover of the book. I'll be honest that Addie's butterfly cake looked better in my head than it did in reality. But Steve vouched for his copying skills and we armed ourselves with pre-colored fondant and away we went. I made the cake and frosting (and colored it "teal", yeah baby). I also rolled out some of the fondant.

Then Steve got some pretty official tools (is that an exacto knife? Why yes it is...) and....

VOILA!! I am SO SO proud of Steve's artistic skills and practically had tears in my eyes when I saw the final product. Pretty kick ass, huh?

So with some color-coordinated balloons (or "baboo" as Coley calls them)...

and some Aunt-Alli-rockin' streamer action....the party can begin!


Cole rocking his Moo shirt with Poppy.

All the kiddos sporting their shirts.

Cole showing Alli how cool Elmo "Eh" is.

Cole chooses his hat...

...Douggo chooses his "stupid horse" hat :)

Gaga and Uncle Dan

Addie and Yaya

Alli, Julie, and Douggo

Nom nom nom--delicious lunch if I do say so myself.

Then it's cake time! Cole had a big lunch so he wasn't all that interested in the cake at first. Addie was using her high-pitched big sister voice "Coley, it's CAKE you EAT it"

Steve finally took it into his own hands and fed him a piece.

And the rest was history!

Addie had cake AND a matching cupcake.

Presents! Lucky Cole had some help from his big sis.

Cole loves Addie's green Anywhere Chair, so he got a blue one for himself. Yep, he loved it, too!

I LOVE this picture of Doug with the baby cousins!



In conclusion...Cole turned 1. He's still our baby. The party was awesome. We have an amazing amazing family. Life is good!

:)