Bean,  Family,  Friendship,  Holidays,  Marriage Confessions,  Milestones,  Parenting

The Par-tay Recap

June 3, 2010 /

For Bean’s birthday, we are celebrating by spending this coming Saturday in Disney’s Animal Kingdom (thanks to the swell folks at Disney!).  That’s when my parents and some of Chris’ family will be in town and we’ll boogey down all day together.  But I couldn’t let his actual birth day go by without some little celebration of its own.

My lovely friend, Sarah, and her husband, Scott, came over…

…along with Chris’ sister, Annie…

(More on this enormous school bus that now lives in my living room later)

and my Dad (my Mom and Grandma were unavoidably out of town).

We had a little backyard BBQ.  The old fashioned kind with a charcoal grill, store-bought potato salad, and potato chips eaten right out of the bag at the table.  Oh, and beer.

I went with the jungle theme for this little shindig so that we stayed close to the Animal Kingdom theme.

And because I am ridiculously addicted theme parties.

We had the jungle-themed “Happy Birthday” banner and the jungle print table cloth with paper plates and cups.  Though, I was disappointed to find that Budweiser did not make a jungle-themed beer bottle.

HOW CAN I PROPERLY THEME UNDER THESE CONDITIONS?!?!?

Bean didn’t seem to mind though.  He was too busy squealing/shrieking/rupturing people’s eardrums and trying to catch balloons.  He was also busy eating Cheez Its that his Granddad was sneaking him.

Before dinner, we all sat around talking (and sweating) while Bean played with his big birthday gift from me and Chris, his Step 2 Arctic Splash Water Table.  To me, it looked like a big bucket of water on legs, but to Bean it was a water wonder world…

We sat the water table inside his empty pool so that he didn’t get muddy.

By dinner, Bean was completed soaked, head to foot.  So, we had to do his FIRST costume change of the night.

This did not please The Beast…I mean, The Bean.

But the balloons on his high chair during dinner soon distracted him enough and he forgot that his shirt didn’t say, “MOST AWESOME PERSON IN THE WORLD!”  At least, that’s what we told him the other shirt said.

It’s funny when they can’t read yet.

It was miserably hot outside.  Miserably hot.  Chris and I are still living like we did in Connecticut.  Up there, when the weather was nice, you get yourself outside.  It was usually warm and sunny and a little breezy.  It was lovely.

But here in central Florida?  Sunny means 93 degrees and not a breeze a-blowin’.  So, I set up this whole dinner outside and then I made my friends and family sit outside in it and I think I almost killed them.  I was pretty sure someone was about to have a heat stroke.

So, we moved inside after dinner for birthday cake and presents.  I ordered Bean’s birthday cake from Publix, our grocery store.  They did a fantastic job!

Publix also gives you a free smaller cake for first birthdays.  I called this the face slam cake.  And it lived up to its name.

We sang happy birthday to the Birthday Boy…

And then we turned him loose on his cake.  I think what happened next is best explained visually.  Because the phrase, “It was messy,” just doesn’t do it justice…

It really wasn’t going too bad, until Bean started flapping his arms…

And then he made the fatal mistake of trying to wipe his itching nose…

At this point, it was time to call it a day.  So, I dragged Bean into the kitchen to stick him under the faucet.

But that just made him sort of oily.  So, I pulled out the big guns, stripped him down to his birthday suit right there at his own birthday party, and stuck him in the bathtub.

In college, we knew it was time to call it a night when the guest of honor started getting naked.  Turns out, the same is sort of true for one-year-old birthday parties, too.  So, everyone started heading home after that.

It was a pretty awesome night, really.  Bean had a blast and Chris and I just soaked up the success of our first year of parenting.  And who better to do that with than our closest family and friends?  It was a great night and I can’t wait to see how much fun we have on Saturday at the Animal Kingdom, too!

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