Under the Sea

I had a lot of fun planning Miles' First Birthday party. Partly because Charlie got to be so involved with the planning process, he would get so excited about the details. It was harder for me to plan Charlie's 1st birthday because I didn't know if I was aiming it towards the adults or a one year old that wouldn't remember it. Anyway, we chose an Under the Sea theme because "fishy" is one of the first words I heard Miles attempt to say...so I took it and ran with it. Oh yeah, and he LOVES bath time!

We had the party nearly a week after his real birthday because of the busy weekend his actual birthday fell on.

The party was supposed to be in our backyard and I had it all planned out but Lo and Behold the weather report said it would be rainy and a high of 50 degrees. Our living room is too small for all the people that we invited so we decided to move it into our church gym. It ended up still being a lot of fun with plenty of room for the kids to run and play, the only thing that I was disappointed with was the pictures and my inability to get the correct white balance indoors. Oh well, as long as everyone had fun. 

All we needed was this dollar tree table cloth to feel like we were under the sea.

We had fruits, veggies, pizza, and some oceany treats.

And of course we had to have a pinata!

The moment the treats were set out on the table August and Charlie were right there taste testing.

There were gummy sharks and Swedish fish in Blue and green jelly bellies.

We made a little photo booth, and we had fish face masks, but it turned out the the eye holes were placed much too wide for any human being.

Oh and we got this pretty huge fish balloon that happened to match the pinata.

You can't even tell he's not really under the sea right?

And Miles decided to walk right out of the photo shoot.

And Lexi followed him but still posed. :)

My dad was able to take some photos too.


                        
                        

We needed bubbles of course!


One of the main attractions was the "digging for Sea creatures and treasure" area. This had to be modified a bit when we switched our venue but it was still a hit and not as challenging to clean up as I feared.

Kaden found a lobster

We're glad Isla came, she was really the only kid that is close to Miles' age. Everyone else was a friend of Charlie's

Okay, so I have made very few cakes in my life but I thought I would try to attempt a fish cake. It looked simple and oh so cute. It may qualify as a pinterest fail, but I was still pretty proud and it mostly got eaten.

In case you need to laugh about it, here is the model that I was looking at, too bad I didn't have many of the right tools.

Also, I sent a picture text to my friend Marissa who is an amazing cake decorator, and she kindly reminded me that no matter how tricky the frosting can be, you still have a tasty cake.

And then it was time for the pinata. Miles was the first to go since he was the birthday boy. He circled his opponent before taking any action.

The kids started with the cardboard tube. I didn't get photos of everyone since I was holding Miles back but here are a couple.

After the first round we handed out the heavy bat. Candy started to fly out of the fish's mouth. Luckily my dad was there to get a pic of Miles' turn.

The pinata was filled with fish tattoos, jumpy frogs,candy treasure and fruit snacks.

And then it was time to break into my gorgeous cake. 

I didn't intentionally make the same cupcakes with the same frosting for both of my boys' first birthdays but that is what happened and they even ate their cupcake the same way. Precious right?

Then there was more sand play, and more "under the sea" photos 

We had games for the grown ups too. Like put these photos in order of age. I'm pretty proud of my poster board art project :) Also, I found out after the party that I had accidentally switched the 4 and 5 month photo in my answer key. Whoops! I hope I didn't mess anyone up too much. Anyway, if you are feeling so inclined...see if you can put them in order. There is one from each month of his life and including a newborn one and an almost 12 months one.

And a "caption this" game.

Auntie Lisa was kind enough to let Charlie pull her hair.

Our little family....

Lisa kept the sleepy birthday boy entertained while we were able to finish up the cleaning. She must have been teaching him a special dance here?

All in all it was a fun party and we're happy so many friends and family could come to celebrate with us, and even if Miles doesn't specifically remember this party, I know he enjoyed himself and that's important!

A much needed Date!

Life has been busy to say the least. I have been putting the boys to bed on my own more than I would like. Max has been incredibly busy with going through his parents garages (plural) and getting rid of most everything and going through the many boxes that look like they could have something important in them. He had to have the apartment keys ready to be turned in for his parents apartment and garages on Saturday and he has spent countless hours making that happen because he is an amazing hardworking man that takes care of his family. He's been gone so much that when he left for work, Charlie started asking him if he was going to come home to our house after work. It's been crazy but he's felt strongly that it is what he needed to do as part of honoring his parents. Anyway, the house stuff is pretty much done but now we just have tons of boxes in our garage that still need to be sorted through. Crazy! Anyway, the point of this post is that I finally got to date that man of my dreams and it was one of our best dates ever. 

Saturday was a busy day with Miles' Birthday party in the morning, I've decided to wait to post that one because I'm mad that the weather report said it was going to be cold and rainy so we switched the party from our backyard to our church gym and I'm having issues with my indoor white balnces. SO I'm not too pleased with the photos I got.  OH yeah, and it ended up being mostly sunny and warm. Anyway, This post is getting quite rambly but continuing on.

We got a babysitter and went out into the City. 

Oh yeah, and another backstory..if you are still following my choppy storytelling. Last year, just after Miles was born, Max went to our ward auction where the youth auction off items that the ward members donate to save up for summer camps. Max fought to get this couples massage class and eventually got it in the auction. We were both so excited but, since I had just had a baby, we decided to wait awhile before going. I finally got to scheduling it in January but there was a mad Valentine's rush and we didn't get it scheduled until April. Whatever, we were able to go at the perfect time when we needed it most. 

We got there a half hour early and were able to explore the old Portland building.

The class was amazing, educational and relaxing. We had done something similar shortly after we got married but it wasn't nearly as educational as this. It was a two hour class so we each got a one hour massage. And of course it is the gift that keeps on giving because we are basically pros now. We loved it so much that Max convinced me we NEEDED to sign up for another class. Seriously though, if you are in Portland, there is a groupon right now, it is so worth it!

We walked back to our car in the drizzling rain feeling refreshed. We then went to Chipotle and grabbed some food to go. When we got home we were so excited that Carly had gotten both kids to sleep and she had even cleaned our living room. (When we left, it looked like a tornado had gone through our house) Max and I were able to just sit on the couch, eat our food, and watch a show together, and it was only 8:30. I love dates, and much overdue couple time!