Eli's First 1st Birthday Party!

We had everybody at both of his parties sign this book with a special birthday message for Eli to keep.

The birthday flags that I made for him surrounded the living room.

Playing with the balloons

Notice the cute little 1 onesie that I made him!

Checking out his presents

Here's Eli laying down to get a good look at one of his presents- a set of 4 cars and trucks (which was wrapped with just ribbon so he could get a good look)! This was about as interested as he got in opening gifts during this party (I think when it came to the actual gift opening he was a little overwhelmed)!

Singing Happy Birthday

He was a little unsure about the cupcake at first!

So he thought he would just poke at it for a bit.

And maybe finally try some frosting.

And now he's starting to get into it!

Yes, now he's having fun!

He was covered in frosting and cupcake- although I didn't get any pictures of when he starting running the frosting through this hair!:)

I know that I'm a little out of order here (since I do still have many Christmas pictures to post), but I really wanted to get these pictures of Eli's birthday party in before 2010 ends! I've been wanting to post them for a while, but I've been waiting for my new editing software to arrive (ordered 2 months ago)! It's still not here, but I just can't wait any longer. So...here are the pictures from Eli's first 1st birthday party! We actually celebrated Eli's birthday three times! This is the first- a great party at our house with Joe's family and a few of our close friends!

We did all of the traditional birthday things like decorations, balloons, cake, presents and singing. We also did a lovely little meal of homemade soups and breads which was perfect for a house full of people on a chilly fall evening. We asked everyone to bring a wind up toy or toy that goes to share with Eli (it seemed fitting since our little boy is always on the move these days) and we attempted to have the kids race them. Except that wind up toys don't really move very fast and with a house full of people it is sort of hard to do. It was a fun idea even if it didn't quite work out like I had hoped. Lily and Eli have had a great time since though playing with all of the wind up toys!

My favorite part of the evening was watching Eli eat his birthday cupcake. My least favorite part was having to actually give Eli a shower after eating his cupcake because he was so messy! Eli really seemed to enjoy the party and many people mentioned that they thought so too. I think that his favorite part was probably playing with the many, many balloons!

Overall it was a wonderful way to celebrate the birth of my sweet, sweet baby boy!