Goodnight Bennett

I'm officially turning in my crazy card. I earned it last month when I held Bennett's birthday party...the night before we left VERY early in the morning on a week long vacation. You see, I have this terrible habit of packing a bit like a tornado does. I have a pathological fear of leaving anything we might need, so I tend to take everything and make a gigantic mess doing so. To try and avoid this scenario(and because Brent was going to be leaving for two weeks the day after we got home), I came up with the bright idea to host Bennett's birthday AT MY HOME the night before we left for Outer Banks. Yep. Crazy. My stress level was through the roof as I planned and executed this "little" party for my little man. At least it was cute!!
Bennett is finally starting to enjoy reading books with me and he likes Goodnight Moon. I built the party theme around it. I started with our green room(living room), added some red balloons and voila, instant party! Not really! But I did hang up some teeny tiny socks and mittens!

I wanted to make Bennett a bear for his smash cake. I wasn't crazy enough to make three little bears, but I did seat three little bears in chairs!

I really did think things turned out cute. We had a Goodnight Moon cake and cupcakes complete with stars and moons. I served cheddar bunny crackers, teddy bear crackers, star marshmallows, carrots and dip(for the bunnies of course!) After this party I don't think I'll ever serve a full meal again! The kids were just as happy with snacks!

I invited everyone to wear their pajamas to our Goodnight party. The adults didn't comply, but most of the kids were sporting their cutest Jammies! Katie and Scott were actually able to make it to the party since I had it on a Friday night. We were so happy to have Aunt Katie, party planning extraordinaire, with us--and Scott too, of course!

Bennett, of course, had no idea what all the fuss was about, but this boy LOVES excitement and confusion and he loved all the activity. We snuck a moment to snuggle with him before the festivities began in earnest.

Bennett sure was happy to see his Grammy and Pappap! Most of the time he abandons me in favor of Grammy when she appears!

We loved getting a chance to catch up with our friends before the craziness of our summer began in earnest! Annabel came to celebrate with us. She's only six weeks older than Bennett, so they're church nursery buddies. She's a cutie!! Bennett is too! I debated putting him in jammies too, but then he couldn't wear his cute 1st birthday shirt!

Sarah and Carter, both church friends came to wish Bennett Happy Birthday. We'll miss Sarah--she and her family will be moving away in the next month. Carter is sticking around, though! He and Tristan bonded over Cars. I love that Tristan has some good guy friends.

Lorie and Alexandra weren't going to miss this party, even though they'd be with us when we celebrated his actual birthday the next week at the beach! Bennett loves his Aunt!

Friends all around--and this isn't even everyone: Carter, Lily, Gracie, Bennett, Tristan and Haylie. Bennett liked the snacks, but he LOVED the cake. He couldn't wait to get his hands on his smash cake! He acted a little embarrassed as we all sang to him and then REACHED for the cake as soon as it was over.

Happy, happy boy! He demolished the cake. When I finally took it from him, it was nothing by crumbs on the plate! The kids LOVED watching him smash his cake. They all gathered around his highchair and yelled "Smash it!" at him. He was happy to comply!

Cake coma. Thank goodness presents were next! Bennett was READY...to play. He could have cared less about his gifts. I unwrapped them all with the help of the other kids.

"Look Bennett!" He just wasn't interested. There was just too much to do. Paper to play with, people to watch, steps to take. Yes, that's right, he took his first steps at the party. Colleen was holding onto a balloon string and Bennett had to have it. He took about three steps before falling over. So sweet. He's getting big too quickly! There's just something about parties and walking for my kids. Tristan walked at his first birthday party and Maura walked on her birthday. I didn't expect Bennett to walk as soon--he's been a lot slower to cruise, but he's definitely up and about now!

I thought that this photo did a great job capturing the chaos of the moment! Kids everywhere, paper flying, lots of conversations. It was awesome! We really had a great time and in the end I'm glad I actually had a birthday party for him, vacation or no vacation. My family stuck around afterwards to help tidy up and it made my job much easier. I was able to leave my house in reasonable shape and I didn't have to stay up all night to make it happen. Happy birthday Bennett--you are the sweetest, happiest, most adorable one year old I know!