Monday, September 6, 2010

Bennet's 1st Birthday - the recap

Invitation, made with the help of Crafty Katie.
It got to a point, around 6 hours of shared labor and 35 cards, where I decided everyone else would get an email invite.  Not that I love those of you less!
To pull off the theme I served all the food the Very Hungry Caterpillar ate through.
I also printed off pictures from the book that I found online, adding text to go along with the menu.
This fruit salad consisted of the VHC's menu on Monday-Friday.
The salami, pickle, swiss cheese, sausage, and nice green leaves -
aka cilantro. 
I also threw in some marble cheddar cheese and crackers.
Cherry pie - made from scratch by my mom. 
(Isn't it beautiful?!)
The VHC ate through a cupcake - I made a funfetti cupcake caterpillar.  This was inspired by different cupcake caterpillars I found online.  The Skittles are supposed to mimic the colorful dots on the title page of the book.
Chocolate butterfly cake. 
Made by my wonderful mother-in-law and sister-in-law.  It was soooo yummy!
Singing "Happy Birthday" while Lydia chomps on the lollipop.
Bennet did really well when all 60ish people sang to him.  :)
Friends from high school who came to celebrate. 
Friends from Newman who came to celebrate.
Friends from church who came to celebrate.
(this is not a good picture of me - bad angle - but look how pretty V and L are.  And L is having one heck of a good hair day!)
Friends from my Catholic mom group who came to celebrate.
We are really, really blessed by our great friends.
Beautiful weather meant people could hang out inside or outside.
Bennet and his birthday cupcake. 
Okay, really he found the cupcake, half eaten by a 2 year old friend, picked it up and ate it. 
Whatever.
The sign on the front door. 
Lydia helped me make it - she dispersed the glue, cut the grass, and colored where I had (4 times) specifically told her not to.  She went to time out for disobeying.
Opening presents didn't excite Bennet too much.  He ripped open about 4, and then there was a wave of little kids who wanted to help.  When this dinosaur was opened there was a collective gasp of awesomeness by all people under the age of 9.  Bennet then sat with his lovely godmother and played with the cool new toy.
My mom and my aunts.  I like these women.
The cake bakers.
(I have really great in-laws.  Seriously.  They rock.)

It was an a great day.  There were a lot of people, but it seemed to me that everyone had a good time.  There was enough food and drink, and plenty of helping hands for set-up and clean up. 

Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate my son's life!
We love you very much!

And thank God for the awesome weather!

7 comments:

Jude and Alisha said...

Looks like you all had fun! I wish I was in the picture with you, "V" and "L"... :(

Sarah Hedman said...

oh wow, Bonnie, what a creative idea to theme a party after. i just love how you pulled it all off. Making Abe's first bday party invites is on my list of things to do this week. I just can't believe they are 1. wowsers. anyway, so glad you had such a fun day - you did a great job!

Heather said...

Might I add that your friends from high school are absolutely gorgeous! ;-) Thanks for the invite Bonnie. The party was fabulous and it was so fantastic to get to see you and your family. Love always!

Anonymous said...

Aw, thanks! (You are part of my inspiration to grow my hair out, the other part being it hides my fat face) :) It was a great party! A good midwest party, with corn fields in the background, half the party outside sitting on the patio, and lots of friendly people and good homemade food. Thanks for inviting us. And it was such a nice day, I was telling Paul I really wanted to take a walk around your town before we drove home. And your house looks great!!

Happy Birthday, Bennet! I'm glad you got to celebrate your day before little brother Linus Aquinas steals the show ;) (and I'm sure Bridgy saved the best part of the cupcake for you, it saw only the best places of the trunk of the princess big wheel)

-Lisa

Anonymous said...

PS -- And your makeup looked fantastic!

(Lisa again)

ecrainvi said...

This is such an awesome idea!

Anonymous said...

It was a wonderful party! I think I'm going to have lots of fabulous dreams about your mom's AMAZING cherry cake! wow it was good! :)

Also, there is no 'good angle' when you're 9 months pregnant - sorry. :)

cant wait to get some good news soon!!

~Veronica