Baby boy's birthday party

Well it isn't official yet, but my baby boy is growing up.  He'll be the big ONE next weekend, but being so close to Christmas we decided to celebrate a week early.  I wonder if we will continue to do this as he gets older.  Birthdays were always a pretty big deal growing up in my family, and it's really important to me that my kids feel really special on their birthdays.  It's hard being so close to the holidays (I will spread my shopping out a bit better this upcoming year... a birthday during the holidays really adds to the financial stress) to make sure that he knows that his day is all about him.

This was my second attempt working with fondant.  I am VERY happy with the cupcakes.  The cake turned out ok, especially considering I accomplished it while simultaneously caring for 2 kids.  I wasn't yet prepared to try my hand at homemade fondant, so I was using store-bought... I thought I had enough of one colour to cover the whole number 1, but I was mistaken, so tye dye it was!

 

I think I will attempt homemade fondant for something less "important"... maybe Valentine's Day or something... I'll keep you posted :)

We had Ashton's party in our church hall because the idea of squeezing everyone into our house was more stress than I could handle.  Turns out we actually had fewer people than when we were all forced inside due to the rain for Eleda's party.  Oh well.  I made 3 big pots of chili (veggie, beef and buffalo chicken) for everyone to warm up with.  Ashton loved every bite.

Eleda was pretty excited about the cake.

 

 He poked at his "A" cupcake for a bit...

And then made me proud :)

That is one happy little fella.

Like the faux-hawk?

Once again desperately attempting to get a cute bro/sis shot.  Ashton was SO tired, he was rubbing his icing-covered hands all over his face. 

The end result:

He was trying to wiggle away from me at this point...

And here's where Alan had to take over reading him the birthday card I'd written because I was crying...

Blowing kisses

Not sure he could be much cuter...

He had a crazy long nap when we got home...  And we'll continue celebrating next weekend!

Credit for the photos while opening gifts goes to Auntie Bonnie :)