Nathan's First Birthday Party

Nathan's first birthday party went pretty smoothly. I tend to get a little stressed when I am the one that is going to be making all the food and when there are going to be a lot of people at our house. It worked out great the weekend that we had it because Jeff was off on Friday, my mom came in Friday afternoon and one of Jeff's cousins had a MDO on Friday morning, so I was able to get a lot done before the party. I was so thankful for my mom and Jeff and all of their hard work, helping with preparations and entertaining the boys.
Two things we did a little differently for Nathan's first birthday party was, (1) we had it as a come and go and (2) we didn't do gifts for him. I read a blog once that mentioned that they had done a come and go party and I thought that it was genius. I really feel that it takes a lot of pressure of the guest feeling like they have to stay the entire time allotted. I mean, I love my kids dearly, but they might not want to spend 3 hours at a party just for him. It also took the pressure of me of having tons of people all at my house at once. Even though most of the crowd was here right around noon, we had a light crowd before and a light crowd after.
Also, not having gifts for Nathan and him not having to sit there and open them was really nice. I always feel like birthday parties can put a lot of pressure on these little guys to be so happy and bubbly for a long period of time and it's not fair to them. He did great through the entire party, but he was asleep during the first hour (just a few people were here though), and when he woke up, all that we had for him to do was to eat his cake. Then when it was time for his second nap, all the guest were gone. So he did great. Here are some snap shots of his special day....

My nephew, Phillip, came in a chicken costume and I couldn't get enough it. Love that kid!

We asked the guest to not bring gifts for Nathan, but instead donate a gift for the Ronald McDonald House Santa Store.

Nathan seemed a little shy about digging into his cake, so I had to help a little bit.

My other nephew, Rex, who is going to be one next month! Can't believe it. It literally seems like yesterday, his mama and I were sitting on the floor at my mother in laws getting excited about delivering these babies!

We rented a small obstacle course from Manvel Moonwalks, who were great!! After the majority of the guest left, and our kids were out of the moonwalk (very important), Jeff, our good friends Mark and Megan, my sister, Joseph, Christian, and myself, did timed runs through the obstacle course. It was awesome, however, the aches, pains, and burnson the elbows were not fun the next day. Mark won by completing the course in 6 seconds.

Decorations for his party (the lightning McQueen cup isn't part of the decorations).

I have seen this done at other parties and have always enjoyed it. (It's Nathan throughout the first year)

Now I am off to plan my other baby's birthday party. That little guy is going to be turning 5! *shedding a tear*