Jaxson's first birthday party

The one bad thing about hosting a party {well, there's not just one bad thing, per James AND it's probably just ME hosting a party} is not remembering to take pics. Before. During. After. Nada. Thank goodness I had a great friend who offered to take a few....but she didn't quite meet my quota of 200 pictures PER event! Ü So, I'm waiting for some pictures from my dad {ahem}, who I learned that quota from!

I made most of the decorations, some banners and such. And bought a heckuva lot of ties for his birthday "timeline" {no picture of that unfortunately, just imagine 12 months of cuteness} and for all our guests to wear. Some even came prepared with their own ties!

Speaking of guests....so many came and squished themselves into my itty-bitty house! I felt so bad b/c it was so crowded, hopefully no one minded too much! I know I went over-board on the invite list, but everyone I invited is part of our Texas family, we just love them all!

 Costco cake, of course....feeds the masses AND there is always a ton for me to eat for weeks and gain 50 lbs. I made a cake for Bella's first birthday.After that, I said never again. I'm a crafter, not a baker. But really...what is better than Costco cake? I dare say nothing.

 We threw a dinner party.....served chicken kabobs, salad, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, rolls....once we finally got the kabobs cooked, it was a feast! Who knew that they would take that long to cook!

 So grateful for good friends who came and celebrated with us!
 The night was nice enough to let the kids go and eat outside {to my horror, since the backyard was an overgrown mess!}.

 For Jaxson's cake, I bought a cookie monster cupcake. This happened to be the exact same cake Bella had at her 1st birthday, brought back good {blue} memories.
We sang Happy Birthday "Eldredge style" {I recently went to a birthday party where most of the attendees were from the Eldredge family....they sang the regular happy birthday song...then it went on and on into this craziness of songs! and I LOVED it! I'm totally turning that into one of our traditions now. Birthday songs are always too short!}

The kids were all excited for him to jump right in and devour his cake. Buuuut to their dismay....he had more fun looking at all of them! He took his sweet time.

After everyone left, Grampa helped Jax "finish" his cake....

The end result!

His bath water was an interesting color, to say the least!
What fun, tho!
 ♥