Ryland's BIRTHDAY!

 April 3, 2011

Breakdown of the day: (why did I not take pictures of this stuff!?)

*little man woke up at 6:30 after sleeping really well the night before - he must have been excited to start his big day!

*We all stayed in mom and dad's bed for an hour - playing peek-a-boo (which he never tires of)

* Ryland stayed in bed and we brought him a package from Uncle James, Aunt Summer, Sara and Garrett to open.  Thanks for the fun book!  He also got to open some birthday money and a card from Mamaw and PaRay (his great grandparents).  

*We got up and made "1" pancakes (which Brent said looked nothing like a "1")  

*We all helped clean up for the big birthday party (Ryland is good at putting toys away... then taking them back out)

*While Ryland took a nap, we got the treats ready and decorated the house

*He woke up to decorations and balloons - a HUGE smile from the little guy!

can you see the big red welt on his cheek?  Poor kid!

 about an hour before guests arrived, I let Ryland play with a balloon.  He ended up with HUGE red welts all over his face and hands.  OH NO, Latex allergy?! I've been noticing some of his pacifiers give him a little rash but never thought about it being latex.  We washed his face and put a little allergy cream on it and It was almost gone by the time our friends arrived. 

The party:

I had so much fun making decorations and a cake for my baby boy.   Have to show off some of the details:

 Monster cupcakes!

 The snack table set-up

 All dressed up in our party clothes (Ryland changed 3 times after this - messy guy!)  The Happy Birthday banner behind us was so fun to make

We had about 25 people join us for the party.  Most of our friends don't have kids - so Ryland gets extra spoiled!

 Sporting his monster "1" t-shirt - dad helping him with presents.  He got some seriously cool toys and a plentiful spring and summer wardrobe! Lucky dude!

 Cool instruments from Addie! He loves those "shaker eggs"

 He immediately hugged and bit into this stuffed broccoli - thanks Sharon and Tony!

 Ready for CAKE!

 He was really timid digging in... kept looking at me like "is this ok, mama?"  Plus I used frosting that hardened quite a bit - so he was pretty weirded out by the pokiness of the cake! 

 trying out the new toys with his two best buddies - Jacob and Chance!

 He HATED the party hat... but I spent a long time making so of course I made him wear it.

 I think it's cute.

Mmmmm, pita and hummus!  

After our guests left, we went out to dinner with our little buddy Chance and his parents.  At this point, Ry was exhausted and grumpy.  Thank goodness for kid-friendly restaurants!

Then the birthday was over for a very overtired Ry-guy.  Missing the afternoon nap is not a good look for him.  So it was bedtime for him and lots of reminiscing and looking at old pictures for mom and dad.  I'm such a proud mama.