Noah's First Birthday

True to my nature, I decided about a week and a half before noah's actually birthday that i wanted to throw him a party. That didn't leave much time for planning. And a november birthday practically necessitates an indoor party. I tried to think of what things noah LOVES. Food, obviously. But a party centered around food? Sounds like more work than i can handle. What else does he love? Baths. *lightbulb* A pool party! A goldfish themed pool party!!! Which is perfect b/c billy's first birthday had a blue and orange theme so i could re-use his decorations! Thank God my sister saved almost all of them for me :o) I didn't think i would able to pull off the type of party i wanted without the help of my family. Thankfully my friends here are more like family, and with a ton of help from them (cupcakes, cake, putting up decorations, entertaining children, cleaning up, taking pictures etc...), it all came together exactly as i imagined!

The snack table

 I made marshmallow pops. I thought they were yucky, but looked so cute!

 Not only were these adorable, but they were SPECTACULAR!! Thanks again, Jamie!

 A mini-aquarium (plastic fish, blue water, glitter)

 homemade pom poms, thanks to a martha stewart tutorial

 repurposed this banner from billy's 1st b-day

 i can't get over how much he has changed in a year!

 I had to fancy-up the high chair

 Adorable cake, thanks to jamie. With a little banner i made

 noah LOVED the sugar cookie fishy

 Billy is trying to teach noah how it's done

 It looks like his advice worked :o)

 He loved that cake so much he wanted to wear it!

 "Here, daddy, you want some?"

 happy family

Now for the REALLY fun part! The swimming! I think all the kids had a blast, but i know billy and noah were in heaven!!

 He had been asking to go swimming for weeks!

 so happy to be in the pool for the first time in months

 you couldn't wipe that grin off him the whole time!

 Happy kids AND happy parents!

Such a special day for my little man!

All in all, i'd have to say it was a roaring success! Thanks again to my Vance family for making this day happen. I am still shocked by how many people offered to help in so many different ways. I am especially touched by all of our friends taking the time out of their day to come celebrate Noah's big day with us. It may not seem like such a big deal, but family time here is essentially limited to the weekends (mostly saturday), so the simple fact that all of these people chose to add us to their family time is very touching. From now on, they will be known as my framily :o) (friend-family, get it?)