THE Party.

Almost a month ago we threw Sawyer's first birthday party at our house.  We wanted to keep it simple (duh, he's one) and theme-free (what if he loves monkeys next year but we already burned that theme this year?).  So my "theme" was bright, colorful and polka dots.  I found the cutest invitations from Tiny Prints:

And I bought really cute banners for our dining room, a photo banner for our living room, and a highchair banner from here on etsy - and they were so reasonably priced!

I made pretty much all the food - something I probably won't choose to do again! :)  I was up so late stuffing dates with goat cheese... but it was fun to do this time and I think everyone enjoyed the snacks (I wouldn't know as I never ate!).  I served chicken enchilada roll-ups, bacon-wrapped dates, fruits and veggies, pretzels with melted Rolo and pecan on top, M&M's, Chuy's creamy jalapeno dip (homemade) and chips, and Central Market pimiento cheese dip and pita chips.

The little birthday man and some of his favorite people! (Dad & Mom, duh!)

Aunt Amanda

Harbs!

Uncle Josh (Aunt Jamie was manning the camera as usual!)

Lolly and our sweet friend Dora

Pops

Geeps
{You can't see it very well, but I got Sawyer the cutest birthday shirt from here, also from where else? Etsy!  I love it so much and it looked so cute with his "theme." (I'm a sucker for monograms, so I'll take what I can get with a little boy!)}

Uncle Tyler and Alexander

The loot!

Our "favors" (which I conveniently forgot to tell people to grab) were delicious sugar cookies from here, also on etsy.  I will rave about these cookies to anyone - they beat taste and price and cuteness anywhere.

And of course the most important part of the party - CAKE!  Sawyer's smash cake and the big cake for everyone else was brought to us by my mom from our all-time favorite bakery in northwest Houston, RJ Goodie's!  All of my birthday cakes have been from there and it can't be beat, and I certainly haven't found anything near comparable in Austin.  It was so special to me that Sawyer's first cake experience was from RJ Goodie's also.  The big cake was marble with buttercream icing, and his smash cake was white with buttercream icing.



Want to see a ton of smash cake pictures?

I thought so!

We got off to a slow start... and I know it doesn't matter, but I would have been so sad if he'd shown no interest in the cake.  I think that buttercream icing plus his audience kept him interested in the cake!

Once he heard our little neighbor laughing, Sawyer got really into it!  He thought he was hilarious!

Geeps thought he needed a spoon.

After a quick bath and outfit change, we came down to open presents with family.  Sawyer usually just does one nap, but on the weekends he'll typically do two, and he was very ready for his second nap about this time!

Porter was hilarious and helped us open some gifts since Sawyer wasn't too interested in the unwrapping process.  He was very excited about these socks!

And time for a nap!  Some people left, so we put Sawyer down for a quick snooze before our dinner reservations.  We had a party of 17 for dinner at Matt's El Rancho - we did dinner early at 5:30 and it was so great.  It wasn't crowded, they had a table waiting for us, we got our food quickly and thanks to his nap, Sawyer was borderline giddy with all the attention he was getting!  It was lots of fun!

That night Lolly and Pops so kindly babysat while Sawyer slept so we could go celebrate at the Flying Saucer with Jeremy's brother and his wife, and with the Harbisons, who so kindly drove in just for the day to celebrate with us!

Sunday morning we met all the family (Jeremy's brother and his wife, Lolly and Pops, Geeps and Honey, my 3 step-siblings, my brother and sister, and Mimi + us) for brunch at Jack Allen's Kitchen.  It's about 2 minutes from our house and one of our new favorite Austin restaurants, but we hadn't tried their brunch before.  It is simply to die for.  So delicious.  I was glad we could try it out, and again, Sawyer was just giddy with all the attention.  Everyone left right after brunch, and we went straight home for naps!  After being busy planning and then hosting all weekend, that nap felt amazing, and we spent the rest of the afternoon unwrapping, putting together and playing with tons and tons and tons of new toys.  Sawyer really needs a little brother or sister because this kid is downright spoiled!

It was such a fun weekend and I was so happy we were able to celebrate with so many family and friends.  The first birthday party really is a celebration for us as parents, and it felt like it!  Sawyer is sweet and funny and mischievous and inquisitive and I am so proud of him and us for having such a wonderful first year together!  I was pretty emotional leading up to his actual birthday - it made me so sad to think he wasn't a baby anymore.  But March 26 came and went and he's still the same cutie as he was before!  He is such a fun age right now and we're just having a blast!