1st Birthday Party!

I hope Tyke enjoyed his first birthday party as much as we did!  It was a lot of fun to put together.  A lot of work and a lot of stress but it came together perfectly!

Tyke has been obsessed with the cartoon "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" since I don't know when?!  As soon as he started paying attention to the TV we started tuning into Disney Jr.  Tyke doesn't really watch a lot of TV but as soon as the theme song for Jake comes on he stops what he's doing and watches.  And so, for months now I have brainstormed and planned for a Jake themed birthday party!  The invitations went out a week a head of time.  I had a lot of fun designing them!  I also designed his thank you's and his t-shirt he wore for his birthday and his big party!

Tyke's birthday was on Thursday the 16th but we opted to party on the 18th because we thought it would be easier for everyone to come if we held it on a Saturday.  The entire week of Tyke's big day was spent prepping and shopping for the party.  Tuesday night we designed, printed and "made" Tyke's birthday t-shirts.  Wednesday was spent baking a lot of cakes!  I had dreamed of having a pirate ship for Tyke's cake but when I checked pricing it was way out of our budget (no way was I paying $95 for a birthday cake!).  I was a little bummed about it but decided I would attempt to make his cake, and I did!  I am super proud with how it turned out!  Thursday was Tyke's big day!  We spent the evening doing pictures, grocery shopping, and we took Tyke to dinner at Texas Roadhouse where he got spoiled by our waitress.  She brought him his own chocolate milk, he ate with us, and then she brought him a bowl of ice cream covered in chocolate and made Tyke sit on the saddle for all to see while she made the announcement that it was his first birthday.  He wasn't all that impressed but he liked the ice cream!  Friday I gathered a few things from Grandma Cheryl's (she has all sorts of fun party stuff), made frosting, cut and shaped cakes, made salads, and Chad and I cleaned and started setting up for the party.

Saturday morning we got up early and finished a few things.  I made more frosting to finish off Tyke's cake and got busy decorating.  I was nervous how it would all turn out but it ended up perfect!  We got lunch started (yay for crock pots!) and I headed to pick up balloons.  Boy did Tyke ever have a lot of balloons!  The balloons from his birthday were still flying high, we added twelve more to that and then Aunt Danielle showed up with a bouquet of balloons too!  Just before 11 a.m. Grandma Cheryl and Grandpa Terry showed up with tables and chairs.  We hurried and set  up and then relaxed and waited for Tyke's guests to arrive.  One by one they trickled in until we had a wild house full.  Tyke was in heaven having almost all of his cousins at his house to play (we were missing our Oregon girls).

 The kids had a blast playing!  We had a hard time rounding them up for lunch.  Once we did, Aunt Jenny blessed the food and we all filled up on pirate grub!  For lunch we had scurvy dogs (chili cheese dogs), peg legs (carrot and celery sticks), cannon balls (olives), sea weed (a pasta salad with green noodles) and "berried" treasure (strawberry jello salad).  We had a few different drinks to offer but the IBC rootbeer was a hit and totally finished off the menu theme.  The kids thought it was fun trying to decide what was what comparing the menu to what was layed out before them on the serving table.  We tried giving Tyke his first taste of a hot dog but he refused.  He wouldn't even eat the olives we put before him and he likes olives!  The only thing he would eat was the jello salad.  He loved it and kept begging for more before I finally cut him off so he wouldn't end up with a belly ache.

After lunch and a good long visit with everyone we put Tyke in his chair and started opening gifts.  Our little guy was completely spoiled by everyone!  He got some good loot and was excited to start playing with his new toys.  But, we had other plans for him.  It was cake time!

We lit his candle and everyone sang happy birthday to him.  He had a half smile on his face the whole time because he wasn't quite sure what was going on.  Once we were done singing, Tyke and his Daddy blew out the candle.  Tyke thought that was pretty awesome and had the biggest grin on his face!  We gave him his cake (the island) and let him chow down.  He did really well and didn't make too much of a mess.  The cake was a hit with everyone!

We all visited for a while longer and then one by one people started leaving.  We handed out our little gift boxes to the kids (they were little treasure boxes full of pirate gold, a ring pop, tattoos and an eye patch).  It was a great day and we're so glad that our families were able to join in on the fun!  Tyke is one very blessed little boy to be so loved by so many people!  Happy 1st Birthday buddy!!  We love you!

Tyke's loot: (Thank you Aunt Stephanie for taking notes!)
Phone station (Uncle Cody and Aunt Jenny)
Car, overalls, shirt and a huge battery powered car (Nana)
Clothes, hat, "Cars" bath book (Uncle Trenton and Aunt Rachelle)
Semi truck with trailer hauling cars (Uncle Seth and Aunt Stephanie)
$10 (Uncle Jerremy and Aunt Ashlee)
Jake and the Neverland Pirates Bucky ship for the bath tub, pirate balloons (Uncle Chris and Aunt Danielle)
Musical train set (Great Grandma Jean) (It was her birthday on the 18th, we're so glad she came and shared her special day with Tyke)
Megablocks table and extra blocks (Grandpa Terry and Grandma Cheryl)
$20 (Great Grandpa Wally and Grandma Gaye)
$5 (Uncle David and Aunt Tiffany)
Rocking horse, summer clothes, Jake memory cards game, Jake look and find book, Pirate book, Elefun Busy Ball Popper, and Jake stuffed doll (Mommy and Daddy)

We have one very spoiled, loved boy!  Thank you everyone!