A Birthday Party To Remember

Ian's birthday fell on a Saturday this year, and we were able to throw him a little party at the nice park that's only a mile or so from the house. We love this park, it has a wonderful playground, a walking track, and a big field and it's always filled with people, kids, and pets. That's one of the really nice things about living in this city, we have a great parks and rec department. At the beginning of May last year the existing playground was removed, and members of the community got together and rebuilt it. It was built entirely by volunteers over a 5 day period. J got to participate, and I look forward to telling Ian in the future that hey - see that rail there? Your dad helped build that!

But oh my, it is HOT here right now. We of course had scheduled the park for 1 pm, and it was 94 degrees when we got there. And the humidity? Let's not talk about those percentages. Everyone that came were troopers about the heat. There's a covered pavilion there, and it was just perfect for our little party with family. We had close to 20 family members attend.

We had pizza, and believe you me we didn't have to worry about it going cold!

Instead of doing a cake, I made cupcakes the night before. Strawberry cake for our little man who is a strawberry eating machine! Cream cheese icing and colored sprinkles. I completely forgot to take a picture of the cupcakes, there were 40 (waaaaay too many), and they looked pretty. . . . .until they set outside in the 94 degree heat and 400% humidity, and the icing turned to liquid. Here's a  picture of some that were left over, the icing didn't exactly recover, but they're still tasty.

Ian, however took it all in stride and shoved the whole cupcake, icing first, into his face.

He liked it.

We also brought a tub of ice cream, which he was also quite pleased about eating.

And then presents. And he actually enjoyed opening them!!! Seriously, he couldn't wait to see what was in those bags!

We had such a nice time with everyone. I was especially grateful that my grandfather drove up from Georgia to attend. Ian is his 15th grandchild. Us grandkids call him Pop, and I cannot express to you how awesome it was to see my little man point at him and say, "Pop!"

In this rush of trying to get ready for the party, we completely forgot to give him his presents from us. So after we got home he got to open a few more.

A little magnetic gardening kit.

An abacus, which he thought was the coolest thing ever.

Yup, he had a pretty good birthday. He won't remember it, but we sure will. I still can't believe he is 1.