Camryn's 1st Birthday Party

We had Camryn's 1st Birthday party on Sunday, May 27.  Memorial Day Weekend will probably become her standing birthday party date.  It is pretty ironic that we have two kids, none of them were planned, and their birthdates fall at two of Jay's busiest times.  The only way we could make it even better is if we had a 3rd and it was born the end of October.  Oh well.  I don't think Cade is too damaged by it so Camryn should also survive. 

Last summer, while I was off work, I did a lot of internet work so I had pretty much made up my mind about a 1st Birthday theme.  You all know I love decorating for birthday parties so you can imagine how it was decorating for a girl's party.  Not that I haven't loved Cade's parties, it was just fun to do something that involved pink and didn't have wheels or legs attached to it.  I ordered Camryn's birthday outfit last fall, because I'm obsessive like that.  Then I did the decorations to corrdinate with her outfit.

If you haven't figured it out - I love animal print.  If it wouldn't be considered weird I could wear something animal print every day.  I have no idea why I like it so much, but I do.  Jay does not like animal print.  Over the years I kept my obsession in check and only had a few animal print things.  But every time I shop I'm instantly drawn to the animal prints.  Once we got Camryn I went crazy with the prints.  Her room...her clothes...even found a zebra paci.  Jay has been ok with it because he knows I love it and when we were talking about her room he said I deserved to do it how I wanted.  So she has navy zebra curtains floor to ceiling :) 

So....yes the theme was Zebra with Hot Pink and Teal.  Zebra is so big right now that finding stuff to match was easy.  Besides the zebra I was also excited because we were going to have the party outside.  Since Cade and I are March babies we've never done an outdoor party.  Of course when I was building the decorations and setting up in my mind there was no wind blowing in my perfect picture.  I kept having to re-decorate the tables.  I finally taped the zebra napkins to the table.  How something looks always trumps the functionality of it. 

Janella did the cakes - of course.  And of course they matched Camryn's outfit.  I did manage to get the lambie cake done.  Thankfully it only took one try.  It probably doesn't look as good as Grammy's or Aunt Helen's but that's ok.  Camryn will know she had the traditional cake.  Also, the wooden high chair was my grandparents.  I keep it in our kitchen as a decoration but wanted to use it for the party.  I couldn't begin to tell you the number of kids who have sat in that high chair with their lambie cakes.

Camryn was a little unsure about her cake.  Not surprising since she doesn't eat most of the time anyway.  Cade helped her by karate chopping the cake a few times and she thought that was hilarious.  I really don't think she ended up eating much of her cake. 

Jay and I worked really hard to get our yard in order before the party.  I know that I've mentioned it millions of times - but until you deal with a wooded lot you have no idea the sheer number of leaves it produces.  I wish I knew how many pounds of leaves I removed.  It also didn't help that the last two summers we didn't do anything but the bare minimum to get by.  It was like uncovering layers of fossils...oh I found a shingle...what year did we get the new roof...2008.  Nice. 

While I worked on the leaf and flowerbed situaiton Jay built a swingset.  Cade got a metal swingset for his 1st Birthday.  It long ago rusted out so we had to remove it.  We decided to go with wood this time.  Jay ended up hiring one of his students to help him finish it.  There were times over the weekend I wasn't sure everything would be done, but it was.  We are loving the swing set and play on it every night we are home. 

These were taken the first night they got to try it out.  I love these pictures because in the first one it's like Camryn can't believe what Cade has done and then the 2nd one looks like she is tattling on him.  There was a lot of sweat poured out in the days leading up to this party!

But of course it was totally worth it!  I think everyone at the party had a good time.  I get so mad at myself though because I had ideas of different pictures I wanted to take at the party and none of them got done.  When you have a party (even when it's just close family like ours) things happen so fast that the party is over before you even get to sit down.  I wanted pictures of Camryn with her grandparents and her cake.  None of that happened.  But we still had a great party!  Oh, and I'm already thinking about party #2!!!

Clicking on the pictures should make them bigger