Happy Birthday, Nathaniel!

This weekend we had a house full of company over for our little guy, Nathaniel’s first birthday.  I don’t really get into those huge kind of birthday parties for kids with everyone you ever knew and a big meal.  I don’t like stress, and that kind of party preparation would totally stress me out.  So we had about 20 people, mainly adults, cake and ice cream, lemonade and water.  Simple and fun.

We have one of those really cool red plates.  You know, the ones that say “You are special today”, on them?  I bought it on eBay for our big guy, Gabriel’s first birthday.  I really like traditions, and this red plate is going to be one of our birthday traditions.  So, we always start out with the cupcake on the big red plate, sing, blow out the candles, and then we let the kiddo have the cupcake and keep the plate in a safe place.

When Gabriel turned one, he liked his cupcake, but he was not in love with it.  Grandma and Nanna ended up feeding it to him because he didn’t really want to do it.  Nathaniel?  Well, he really dug in.  He picked the cupcake up with one hand and licked it first.  Hmm, what’s this?  Then, once he got a real taste, you couldn’t take the thing away from him!  He looked super cute and had a smile on his face the entire time.  (Don’t tell him, but he was actually eating an apple muffin with butternut squash hidden in there.  The icing fooled him!)

He got lots of great presents and not too many.  I didn’t feel like we needed to get rid of all of our old toys to make room for the new stuff.  Just some great additions and some different things we didn’t already have. He got some money, which we will happily add to his savings account, and some great new books and clothes too.

Toward the end he seemed to be getting tired and was ready for all the hoopla to be over.   He got really clingy and only wanted me.  But all in all, he had a great time and I know the family and friends enjoyed it!  Thanks for everything, y’all!

P.S. I would also like to send a special thanks to our awesome neighbors Cory and Joanna for videoing and taking pictures when we couldn’t!  Thanks for the memories!