Collin’s First Birthday Celebration

Growing up I always had the most amazing birthday parties…

A “My Little Pony” themed party complete with a VERY large pink & purple My Little Pony castle cake (courtesy of the cake making queen, my Nana – seriously, she was the original “Ace of Cakes”).

A Hawaiian Luau themed party with grass skirts for all the girls and a live hula dancer that gave us all authentic hula dance lessons (never mind that it was snowing outside in March and we were all wearing bathing suits – that’s what the heater is for, right?).

And I could go on and on…needless to say that my parents set the bar pretty high for birthday parties.  So naturally, I wanted to go all out for Collin’s big day…because the level of effort that goes into his party is equal to how much his mommy loves him, right?

I decided to do a beach theme with lots of bring colors & a baby pool for the babies to play in…sounds fun, right?

I am sure you are all tired of hearing this, but it is really hard being so far away from my family, so I was really glad that Son’s parents were able to come in town for the big event.  Son’s twin & our sister-in-law has a couples weekend with friends planned in Charleston, so they made the trip from Pensacola with Son’s parents, and our niece, Lilo, was able to stay with us in Jax for the party!  She is such a sweetheart!!  Here are Lilo & Collin playing with Collin’s tub toys at bath time Friday night…

 

Ong Noi & Ba Noi (Vietnamese for Grandfather & Grandmother) with Lilo.

The party favors (which doubled as some of the decorations) – bright colored beach pails with he kids’ names painted on them.  Each beach pail had animal crackers, a pinwheel, bubbles, and a sunflower seed to plant inside them.

The “Happy Birthday Collin” banner – that took me several hours after bedtime last week to complete, but I love how it turned out…it’s actually still hanging up in the house.  Son asked me last night if I was going to take it down.  I guess I probably should, but I really like it.

View of most of the decorations.

Collin & Lilo loved the beach balls that I hung from the ceiling!

Daddy and the Birthday Boy.

Our friend Brad enjoying all the food – I set up a buffet on the kitchen counter.  We had Pork kabobs (made by Ba Noi – yummy!), Hawaiian ham & swiss sandwiches, spinach dip with bread, and a fruit and veggie tray.  I set everything out on a beach towel & used beach pails, and sand/beach toys as platters and serving utensils :)

Baby play area…Collin was too interested in what was going on to spend much time playing with his friends.  Pictured are Maxwell, Dallas & Brookelynne.  You can also kind of see Clara’s legs :)

 

Family Picture :)

 

Pool Time!!  Collin, Clara & Lilo.

Clara, Lilo, Maxwell & Brookelynne

Clara is such a doll – she has fun just sitting in the beach chair like a big girl.  Love the swimsuit!

 

Beau enjoyed being outside & watching the babies in the pool.

After the baby pool, Collin gave all of his friends rides in his new wagon…I am going to have to help him out with his conversation skills when talking to girls because, as you can see, he put Dallas right to sleep.  Although he probably shouldn’t feel too bad b/c this is the same girl that regularly falls asleep in her high chair also – too cute!

 

Cake time!  I was really hoping that Collin would put on a good show with his cake, and he did not disappoint his mommy!  Some of the guys were joking that he looked like braveheart with his blue icing streaked face.

Of course, he wanted to share the fun with mommy :)  This might just be my favorite picture from the whole party!  He was so covered in icing that the bath water turned aqua blue!

Overall it was a great weekend & lots of fun.  I still can’t believe that my tiny little baby boy is one year old!  Here is a picture of him on Sunday morning ready for church…doesn’t he look like a big boy??