It is absolutely mind-boggling and amazing to me that this sweet little bug is already a year old!! This has been the quickest year of my life - filled with many of the L.O.N.G.E.S.T nights! Quinn is a difficult baby to "categorize" - serious, intense, inquisitive, stubborn, shy, tenacious, silly, flirtatious, sweet,
loud, and downright adorable! He makes life very interesting and so much sweeter.
We were lucky enough to have his First Birthday fall on a Saturday so we could celebrate with family and friends.
 |
| Display in the kitchen/living room area. The "1" is cardboard covered with cookie crisp cereal and next to that is the invitation (handmade - brown paper with milk bottle and cookies). |
Since before he was born (and before we knew he was a "he") I knew that I wanted a "Milk and Cookies" themed First Birthday party for this baby. Anyone who knows me knows I love to plan and host parties, especially the kids' birthday parties with fun themes and fancy cakes and such. This was no exception and I have pictures of all the little details so bear with me (and sorry about the lighting - not sure why the colors are so off and I'm having a hard time editing them to get the colors right, but you get the idea!). Pictures should be clickable to enlarge - if you're so inclined.
 |
| The most important part - the Cookie Bar and Dessert table! Banner matched the invitations. |
 |
The cake. Triple-layer vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream icing. Fondant "milk bottles", mini chocolate chip cookies and 2 giant chocolate chip "cookie" smash cakes.
|
 |
| White chocolate "milk mustaches" |
 |
| Merengues |
 |
| Mini cookies (aka "Cookie Crisp" cereal) was our decorative vase filler |
 |
| Chocolate chip cookies |
 |
| Peanut butter cookies and party favors |
 |
| As a party favor, each family filled their own personal cookie jar (Pringles cans covered in pretty papers and ribbons) with treats and goodies to take home. We had 7 kinds of cookies - homemade except for the "pirouette" wafers - for guests to chose from. |
 |
| Chocolate white chip cookies - thanks Grandma! |
|
Milk Mustaches!!
The Milk Bar:
I forgot to get a good picture of the drink station before the kids hit it! We had Plain organic milk, Chocolate Milk and Vanilla Almond milk in French swing-top bottles and also had little individual bottles of chocolate milk for the kids, plus iced tea and water for the adults. We had an
amazing weather day so we had this all set up outside on the back patio.
 |
| Pretty paper straws in the soda shoppe dispenser and "flavor straws" in the bucket - Cookies and Cream, Strawberry, Vanilla and Chocolate |
 |
| Lots of milk! |
I strung some ribbon on the mantel and made a clothesline displaying pictures of Quinn from his first year, starting with his ultrasound.
And finally, the birthday boy!! I had a shirt made special for the occasion from Leelynn Crafts on
etsy and randomly found shorts at Crazy 8 that exactly matched the red/tan/chocolate brown color scheme.
Quinn's best little buddy joined him for the big day!
 |
| Hi B!!! |
 |
| Trying to get two 11/12 month-olds to look at the camera is an impossible task! |
Grandma and Grandpa did, too.
The party isn't complete without a fun party hat! I made Quinn a birthday hat out of coordinating fabric, ribbons and scrapbook papers
and we managed - with the help of a sweet
bribe distraction! - to get him to wear it just long enough to snap a few photos
 |
| What did you put on my head? |
 |
| How do I get this off? |
 |
| One final pull... |
 |
| and off it goes! But I'll still eat that treat, thank you very much!! |
Then it was time for cake! Quinn wasn't quite sure what to do about his cake at first - it was his first taste of anything sweeter than fruit and I think having a bunch of random people staring at him was a bit strange to him. Once he figured it out, though, he loved it. It looked like powered through that smash cake, but when I picked him up there was a substantial pile of crumbs in his bib and on the chair. I'm certain he managed to really eat more than enough, though, and it kept him busy for a ridiculous amount of time!
 |
| Happy birthday to you! |
 |
| The wind helped with the candle |
 |
| smiling for his fans |
 |
| first taste - what IS this? |
 |
| Trying a little more |
 |
| Are you really going to let me eat this, mama? |
 |
| big bite |
 |
| getting some help |
 |
| One more try with the hat (don't mind the grouchy face on Caleb - he'd gotten hurt) |
 |
| This thing again? |
 |
| get it off! |
 |
| Smashing the smash cake! |
In the end I was quite happy that I decided to do the cake
outside! What a huge mess for a little guy.
Despite specifying "no gifts" on the invitations, little Quinn was showered with presents from his lovely guests. He had a blast ripping through the packaging - he adores ripping paper and crinkling it up so he was in heaven! The novelty wore off after a little while but Caleb and Sophie were all too happy to give him a hand opening gifts.
 |
| Can I really rip this? |
 |
| This is fun! |
 |
| Uh-oh! They caught me. |
 |
| A card! |
 |
| Quinn sticks his tongue out a little when he's concentrating or working hard. |
 |
| Look! It even has a tag in here! |
 |
| Quinn loves to play with tags on his toys and clothes. |
The day flew by all too quickly. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful group of friends and neighbors to help us celebrate our sweet little boy! For those who couldn't be with us, I hope these pictures helped you feel part of the celebration, too!
 |
| A baby can't live on cake alone - gotta eat some dinner, too! |
 |
| Quinn adored his balloons and didn't let go the entire time he ate. |
 |
| Little crawler |
 |
| Sweet baby toes |
 |
| Happy birthday, sweet baby bug!!! |
