Noah's 1st Birthday!

Putting together Noah's 1st birthday party could not have been more fun. I can admit I had my moments of stress over it, but who doesn't when they are planning a party? One day Josh and I were talking about how in just three months our little guy would be turning one, so we decided we should start planning his party. We are usually huge procrastinators, so planning three months in advance was a big step for us. Ha. Then again, we ended up not getting the invitations out until a week before the party, so I guess I shouldn't be bragging too much. Hey, we tried!

We tossed around several ideas and themes for his party, but we finally decided on a monkey theme. I'm a sucker for monkeys, so I had to curb my spending for the party. There are just so many cute monkey party supplies, darn it!

So we started with the invites. I am oh so lucky to have a husband who is incredibly talented with computer design. I am not lying when I say he can create anything I ask him to make. If we find an idea that we like, he can usually make an exact copy of it or make a design that is even better than what we found. See for yourself:

Isn't it so cute! I was so happy with the way they turned out. After he finished designing the invites we printed them off at a local print shop, and then realized finding a custom made 61/2 X 61/2 inch envelope was almost impossible. In fact, it was a nightmare trying to find an envelope big enough for our invitations. But I won't go into detail about that, because who cares? It was just one of those *little* party planning stresses.

Josh also created the design for Noah's birthday t-shirt, and we made it together (another one of our projects to save money). We were really happy with the way it turned out.

Anyway, after Josh finished the invites and the design for the t-shirt, I started looking for a cake idea for Noah. I looked around for ideas online, and came across these pictures and knew I had to have it!

I sent out a few emails to local bakeries here as well as an email to the Cake Company in Canyon. We ended up choosing the Cake Company because they designed my wedding cake, and we knew from experience it would be quite tasty! I emailed them a few pictures of the design, and they got it right on! It was perfect! It turned out exactly how I hoped it would.

Of course while I was looking for ideas, I came across an item on Etsy that was absolutely, positively the cutest thing ever. And I couldn't pass it up. But I also couldn't justify spending almost $50 for it. This is what I found.

I fell in love with it when I saw it, but spending that much money for a bib is absolutely insane, no matter how cute it is. Luckily, my mother is so very talented, and I knew she could make this cute little bib in no time. The bib she made looked exactly like the picture above, except she added her own special touch to it. Thank you so much mom for taking on another one of my ideas! Here is the bib my mom made for Noah to wear at his party.

We had the party at Paramount Baptist Church in Amarillo, and we could not have imagined a better place to have Noah's 1st birthday. It's such a neat place to have a party because it has toys for the little ones to play with...

...but it also has an upstairs area with pool tables, ping pong tables, Wii's, Guitar Hero, etc. for the big kids!

Isn't this collage Chriselda made adorable? What a wonderful way to look back and remember Noah's party.

The morning of the party I was getting ready and about to leave when Noah woke up. I gave him a bottle, he laid back down, and to my surprise went back to sleep. I had to leave early to get everything ready, so Grammy brought Noah to the party around 9:30.

Poor baby. When I saw him I could tell he wasn't feeling well; I could just see it in his eyes. He hung in there though, and he managed to eat a few bites of cake and to help mommy and daddy open some of his presents. It's just not fair being sick on your birthday!

We all had so much fun, and we are so thankful for all of our family and friends who came to celebrate Noah's big day.

Chriselda took sooo many good pictures, so I made another slide show so you could see the rest of them. What a blessing to be able to look back at all of these pictures and remember Noah's 1st Birthday.