The party

Party pictures per several requests...although these are in no particular order.... I did try to group them...sorry this is a poor post, it's overwhelming to have sooo much go on and to try and capture it in a few pictures- we can't do either party justice..... Here goes:

The set up for Party #2 in Franklin: our backyard, my motto became"if it's plastic stick it in the yard" The kids had a good time...I think :-) i had pictures up everywhere and the adults got to play a quiz game "How well do you know WDP?" The questions were multiple choice and the prize was a bottle of Merlot or Raspberry Tea vodka...Congrats to Melanie and Aya!!!!

The food: Our friends Shawn and Vanessa brought over lots of yummy BBQ and potato salad. I made pasta salad, nutella cookies, veggies from the garden, hummus and pita chips, watermelon, and of course cupcakes :-) The cupcakes were supposed to have green stars around the edges but I ran out of time, I don't think anyone cared. I made white chocolate "candles" for everyone too! :-)Check out the bar in the pictures right above- Chad made it right when i moved to nashville- perfect for parties. We served wine, beer, and margaritas :-)

We had one "kid" game"Pin the Paci"- I printed a 12x18 picture at Costco...only $2.49!!!! and then went to Kinkos and they blew it up for me on the blueprint machine for less than $5- what a deal. We took a picture of the last remaining paci and cut it out, put poster putty on the back, add a blindfold and viola! Pin the paci! I think the kids liked it! One little sweetie gabe kept peeking, but then would "pin" the paci on WDP's hand...not exactly what I had planned, but still the right idea :-) Go Gabe thinking outside of the box!

Backyard fun: jenna tried to teach WDP how to high five, We had a cool bubble machine which was ahit, and again just lots of plastic things to play with..... yeah for big yards!

Lots of sandbox fun..... the kids were calling it the sand pit. Oh, you can't see it, but Chad built a cool "deck" on the other two sides of the box so you can get out and wash your feet off :-) i'll get a better picture for another post.

Party #1 in Elberton: Everyone was there, I mean everyone! His great aunts, his cousins, my dad and bets, my sister and her entourage, Chad's sister and her new hubby- lots of fun! Oh and a jumpy thing. His cousin just got a little tikes one for his b-day (lucky!) and he was sweet enough to blow it up for us to use- William loved it...and the baby pool too :-)

Hmmm, baby's first watermelon. Noone told me watermelon stained, I'm still trying to get those stains out to enter his outfit in the fair (yep, I'm weird like that, I LOVE county fairs! )

Ahh, the cake.... he had his own #1 (thank you ebay) which he promptly tore apart and rubbed everywhere...we just hosed him down in the sink afterwards.... he didn't really like the cake (not a big sweets guy) but loved the mess!

we said "no gifts" but collected books for a local free clinic- Mercy Clinic. They serve tons of uninsured kids in TN that don't have anywhere else to go...and every kid leaves the doctor's office with a book- How cool is that? We collected 52 books- awesome!!!! I hope each year we can help teach William the joy of giving and sharing by doing something like this.....

Three friends did go in and get William this incredible sand/water transportation table...he can not get enough of it. You put sand on one side, water on the other and there's a train, boats, and lots of other thingys to play with. he wants to sit in it when it's dry and splash everything when it has water in it- very cool!!! A huge thanks to Mel, Michelle, and Rachael!!!!

Ahh, lastly here's my pre-party helpers- William dumped all the plastic forks out while i was trying to roll the silverware and tie a cute bow on it.... boys!

This picture sums up the parties to me...a happy, happy boy on his first birthday!