King of the Jungle

The Saturday after Noah's birthday (November 6), our family and closest friends gathered to celebrate the King of the Jungle's first year of life!  It was important to me that the people who made the first year possible celebrated with us.  We have such a strong support network, and Noah's life has been beyond blessed because of that!

We had some fun decorations to get in the mood.  Gara's mom has this amazingly awesome machine, so we got crafty with it!  I made a banner and she (on her own initiative!) made some super cute centerpieces!  I probably would not have had the patience to do these, but I was SO thankful she made them.  I think they really put everyone in the mood! ha!

I also made Noah a little lion shirt and a crown... a King is not a King without his crown!

And then there was the cake.  I came really close to bailing out on making a cake and just making some cupcakes.  I found some different animal cupcakes that were SUPER cute, but then I realized that the CAKE LADY could not forgo a cake on her own son's first birthday.  I am SO glad that I decided to do a cake!  It turned out super cute!

Unfortunately, when it came time for the party, Noah was not feeling very well.  He had a really nasty, nasty diaper rash that popped up while he was taking his afternoon nap (his skin just pealed off his little toosh when we wiped it... VERY sad!) and you could tell he was just not feeling up to par.  He did his best to hang in there, but just was not his happy self.  He was not even very interested in his cake!! (That is when I knew something was wrong!!!)  He did dig into it some, but don't let the pictures deceive... most of the cake on his face is from us trying to get him to eat it.  Ha!  The ice cream, on the other hand, was a different story.  He thought it was pretty awesome...

Noah's friends and family had a good time, though!

Opening presents was pretty exciting... lots of fun things!!!

Tita and Uncle Jason brought over a fun tent and tunnel for the kids to play in.... they definitely enjoyed it!!

I hated that he was feeling crummy, but I know that the grandparents and aunts and uncles didn't mind the extra cuddle time...

I'm not sure how Cappy escaped getting his picture made... probably because he was hiding behind a camera himself!  He was there, too, lovin' on Noah and giving lots of "Wooo"s!  Uncle Buck was going to come in for the party, but decided to come in a week earlier so he could catch the Rangers in their first ever World Series appearance!  We had fun while he was here.  Aunt Dianne and Uncle Rawrr were also going to come in to meet Noah for the first time, but they got held back due to some work stuff.  We sure missed them... Noah was practicing his "Raaaaawwrrrrrrr" so he could impress his great Uncle!

xoxo,
~The Grant Gang