Oh! The Places You Will Go!

Even though it was over a month ago, I still have to share with you Ethan's Dr. Seuss party.  We worked so hard on it, and he seemed to really enjoy his day (although he was a bit overwhelmed by the massive amount of people that we crammed into our house.)

So here we go, mostly in pictures:

Our foyer

Living Room

Mantle

Jason made this sign for Ethan for our front yard.  Isn't it cool?!  I also LOVE his t-shirt.  It was a great Etsy find.

The food table.  In case you are planning on your own Dr. Seuss party, our menu consisted of:

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (Colored Goldfish crackers)
Truffula Tree Pops (Cream cheese wraps)
Hop on"Pop"corn
Poodles with Noodles (Pasta Salad)
Crummies in Tummies (chips, and a few other veggies with dip)
Green Eggs (yes, I put food coloring in deviled eggs)
Roast Beast and Three Decker Sauerkraut and Toadstool Sandwiches (Roast beef sandwiches, ham & turkey sandwiches)

The small arrow sign that Jason helped me make that listed our menu.  And yes, the centerpiece does consist of real fish.  One goldfish in one vase, two goldfish in another, one red beta fish in another, and one blue beta fish in another.  Get it? The three goldfish died within about 12 hours of the end of our party, but the two beta fish are still going strong!  We attempted to give them away as favors, but only my sister obliged.  So now we have a blue fish (rightfully named Seuss) hanging out in our house. Yay.

The actual favors that the parents allowed their kids to take.  Green Egg sugar cookies! Made from scratch by yours truly.

Ethan's cakes.  Oh my gosh these turned out wonderfully.  I really debated on getting a baker for this first party, but just couldn't part with the money for it.  Cakes are so expensive!  Luckily, my Mom was worked in a bakery during her college days, so she helped me out.  Ok.  She pretty much did it all.  I just kind of sat there and told her what I wanted it to look like.  But I will take credit for the Jolly Rancher fish on the side of the big cake.  I did make those.  Shrug.

Ethan LOVED his smash cake, and made a huge mess with it.  He is certainly not like his Momma, and pretty much stuck to the icing.  However he got a huge kick out of sharing bites with other people.  He thought that was hysterical.  Singing "Happy Birthday" to my little boy was one of those kicker moments for me.  He was a little confused at the loud chorus in our backyard, but I couldn't help but think: "No, no no! I'm not ready for this, he's not a year old yet! He's still my brand new baby." Luckily, the moment passed quickly before I made a total fool out of myself and burst into tears in front of 30+ people.

A post cake bath in the kitchen sink was absolutely necessary.

One of the other cool things we did was set up a photo booth for all of our guests to take a picture with our birthday boy.  We printed each copy and mailed them off in our thank-you notes.  I'm very proud to say that I made those truffle trees all by myself, and Jason made the other arrow sign.

 

Ethan could have cared less about opening gifts.  He opened one, maybe two, and was ready to play with his new finds.  If there hadn't been so many people wanting to see their gift opened, I think we would have just let him open them in his own time, even if it took a few days.  Thankfully, Riley stepped in and helped me out with ripping the paper and showing Ethan his new massive amount of toys and books.

I LOVED how many books Ethan got that day.  We made the request in our invitation to bring Ethan a book instead of a card and sign that instead.  We didn't care if it was new or used or came off a cereal box (haha Grandma Lucy! He loves those!)  They are something that he can keep and use for years to come.  I'm so glad we decided to do that instead of birthday cards.  Our boy loves to look at books, and he has already gotten so much entertainment from flipping through them all.

Our gift to Ethan was a water table.  It wasn't fully set up yet in this picture, but he liked it.  However, he doesn't care to much for it anymore.  Shrug.  Maybe he will like it next year?

My parents got him a wagon (per my request) so we could have some fun evening walks.  He LOVES it.  He climbs in and out of it, giggles and squeals when we pull him around.  He especially loves it when we put Fenway in there with him, but Fenway kind of hates it. 

I really expected Ethan to be EXHAUSTED by the end of his party.  However, Jason and I were the only ones exhausted.  I was so glad that we had such a good turn out for our sweet boy's first birthday, and that he seemed to have such a great time.  A friend told me that children's birthday parties were a mother's Super Bowl, and I couldn't agree more.  I'd say this year was a total touchdown.