Calling All Party Animals!

Hat tutorial

Well despite the fact that Ayden totally skipped his morning nap, his party was a great success today!

Best way to work without Ayden undecorating the house.

We made his cake (with WHITE icing), which he did not eat or smash,

Recipe

Purchased animals in the favor section of a local party store

conventional cupcakes that looked like lions for our non-paleo guests,

Inspiration Pin

a veggie tray, bacon wrapped dates, cauliflower pizza bites, guacamole deviled eggs, chips and salsa and hot apple cider.

The funny thing is that everyone ate the Paleo cake and we had to send the lion cupcakes home with people. I thought nobody would want our cake but I suppose curiosity is a strong motivator. The best part was that everyone liked it! My mom came early to help with the food, David put streamers all around and David's parents took the animal print balloons that I got on amazon and had them filled with helium so the party really was a group effort.

We played the slideshow of Ayden's monthly owl shots on the TV

and Ayden even barely tolerated the cute felt hat that I made him while he successfully blew out his candle all by himself on the first try.

Sweet, sleepy boy

Even without a nap he was happy to be center of attention while he showed off all of his animal noises and clapped for everyone, including himself. He actually seemed excited about every gift and helped tear off wrapping and tissue paper.

The favors:
stickers, bubbles, wodden animal to color + markers, little animal figures

Once it was all over and all of our guests had left he asked for me to pick him up and immediately signed that he wanted to nurse. I took him up to his room, changed him and he was immediately asleep. I am so proud of our little boy for being such a good sport. It made it all the more fun to know he was enjoying himself too. You could say that a lot of what I planned and what we did was for me or for us but seeing him enjoy all of the balloons and animals all around made me feel like it really was all for him. It is true that he would't have missed it if it wasn't there but you could really say that about anything in life. I feel like it was the kind of party Goldilocks would have approved of, not too big, not too small, but just right. Everything was put together with love and with our sweet, animal lover in mind. I think if Ayden could have asked for a party theme, it would have been animals of some sort, whether it be pets, farm or the wild that we chose. Next year he really will request his own party which will be so fun!

Now that the party is over it is time to switch gears. I am so very happy that we had the party here at Ayden's first home but now it is time to start a new chapter in our crazy, wonderful lives. This next week will be filled with packing and moving and all kinds of exhausting stuff of the like. Wish us luck!

~Sarah