Happy Birthday Jack!

Baby Jack is no longer a baby - we celebrated his 1st birthday today with a big posse of friends and even some of my family members - my Dad, stepmom and stepsister drove out from Missouri and my aunt, uncle, cousins and another uncle drove out from Centennial.

My dad brought us a family of ceramic pigs that had belonged to my grandmother.

Every baby is drawn to a lit candle...

...but mine reaches right past it and goes straight for the cake!

The party theme was stars and primary colors. I made these crayons by melting the different colored crayons and layering them in a star-shaped ice cube tray. I was also trying to limit the amount of trash we produced, so I was excited when I saw this idea for Mason jar juice "boxes" online. The straws are paper, so we were able to put them in our compost bin. I was a little wary of giving 2- and 3-year-olds glass jars, but not a one broke and the kids loved the blueberry lemonade.
The menu was pulled pork and cole slaw on slider buns, corn "cobbettes", fruit salad (blueberries, pineapple and strawberries, to keep with the color theme!), plus mac & cheese for the kids. I intended to serve baked beans as well, but I put the dish in the oven to warm and promptly forgot about it for about 6 hours. I baked brownies for the grown-ups and cut them out with a star-shaped cookie cutter (I had elaborate plans to create star-shaped cake pops but realized that was going to be a LOT more work than I had time or energy for!)

I baked individual (unfrosted) banana cakes for all the kids, which were a hit. Jack really enjoyed his; Ryan was the only child who asked for "a 'poon" to eat his instead of picking it up like everyone else.

We waited until after the party to open gifts; as expected, Jack's favorites were the boxes, bags, and ribbons. I was worried that Ryan would have a hard time understanding why Jack was getting presents (even though Aunt Sarah wasweet enough to get a gift for him too), and I was right. About 10 minutes after we started Ryan wandered off, then came back with no pants on (not an unusual occurrence around here these days). I asked if he went potty and he said yes, and I asked which bathroom he used. He said, "Oh, I peed in Jack's room!" Indeed, he had just taken a whiz right there on the carpet...

All in all it was a fun time! You can see more photos from the big day here (though, truth be told I was a little busy and forgot to take a lot of pictures - the plight of the second child!).