I will just be honest and admit that for Teddy's first birthday party I went overboard. The day before the party, as I sat in the kitchen surrounded by blue streamers, balloons, and bear shaped confetti, while preparing bear shaped foods, I realized that I could no longer deny it.... I had turned into my mom. Her motto is: "Moderation in nothing!" My family has teased her about this for years. Myself included. But one thing I can say about her is that she ALWAYS threw us fabulous birthday parties! So anyway, I will share on the blog the pictures from the party. We'll start with the invitations I made:
the inside (I warned you in the title of the post... it gets pretty cheesy):
Decorating was a fun part of preparing for the party:
We had balloons on the mailbox and I used sidewalk chalk to write a special message and to draw bear paw prints leading to the front door:
Obviously the party had a teddy bear theme. Inside I decorated with streamers, balloons, and of course... teddy bears:
I made this poster with Teddy's monthly pictures with his hug me bear:
Getting the food ready:
If you look closely, you will notice bear shaped food. LOTS of it. We had all different kinds of sandwiches- all shaped like teddy bears. And "cheesy bears" as well as "bear mix." There was also an abundance of teddy grahams, gummy bears (6 lbs of them... because 3 lbs wasn't enough!) and some very special cinnamon bears that were sent all of the way from Yuma, AZ!
The desserts included carrot cupcakes and chocolate cake:
If you're wondering what those are all around the cake, they are teddy bears driving cars...
of course:
A lot of bear stuff, I know. It gets worse...
I made bear ears for all of the guests to wear. They were by the front door:
Since there were several babies invited to the party, I made some special bear ears for them:
Poor Teddy! Thankfully our friends and family were all good sports and wore the ears. Here are our neighbors the Ballots:
Maggie and Jack posed with me for a picture:
We had a beary good time at the party!
Grandma Judy looked so cute with her ears:
Teddy brought his favorite bear to the party too:
Teddy with all of the bears from his party:
Teddy seemed to have a great time. Here he is with our friends Angie and Kimberly:
After we all enjoyed food, it was time for cake:
On his actual birthday I made the same cupcakes and bear cake to practice making them. That day Teddy refused to eat any of the cupcake we gave him. (My sister blames it on the fact that they were "healthy" carrot cupcakes and were lacking in the lard department). Anyway, after his actual birthday, we offered Teddy some carrot cupcake at almost every meal. I guess you could say we were "practicing" for his party. He slowly came around to the cupcake though I figured out he didn't care for the cream cheese frosting (maybe Aunt Miriam was on to something). So for his party I used the butter cream frosting on his carrot cupcake and look how well Teddy did:
After cake it was time for presents.
Teddy is a very lucky boy. He got lots of great gifts!
Uncle Hal even enjoyed playing with Teddy's new drum set:
Cousin Maggie was all smiles, as usual:
Teddy did a great job at the party. He played, ate cake, opened presents, and seemed to have fun. But being the center of a party wears even the best baby out:
Between Thanksgiving, Chanukah, our trip to Florida, Christmas, our anniversary, and then Teddy's birthday we have literally had one celebration after another. We know we are very blessed to have such great family and friends around us. Most of all we are thankful for our thriving little man. With Teddy's party over, it seems the official end of this holiday season. I have been a bit reluctant to take down the decorations though. Maybe I'll wait until there are no more cupcakes left. Until then, we'll keep enjoying them:
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