Ryan's 1st Birthday Party

For Ryan's first birthday we had an Red Wagon theme Aqua and Red party! It was crazy fun planning AND I really think my little man had a BLAST at his party! He was exhausted afterwards and took a nice long nap :) Anyhow I had a ridiculously fun time planning this little shindig and I am a little sad that it's all over. But then again....there is always next year :)

We hosted the party at our house which I was pretty adamant about. I guess I am just a little sentimental about some things...I wanted to celebrate his first year in the house that we brought him home to.  I was a little (ummm ok A LOT) worried about our house being so small and that it was way too HOT to be outside, but I think it ended up working out just fine. Originally I wanted it to be an outside party... but since the weather has been above 100 for 28 days so far I realized that just wasn't going to happen. We tried to make it somewhat bearable outside with some fans and an umbrella and then I also rearranged the furniture inside to open it up a bit more.  So the final count was 36 adults and 15 children (ranging from 2 months to 8 years) all moseying around some small square footage. I'm not gonna lie...it got a little hot, and I am sure our AC was working way overtime (sorry kevin) but it was worth it :)

I am so grateful for my FAMILY because they were so helpful preparing for this party. There is no way I could have pulled it off without them. First of all my brother Nick was so awesome and watched Ryan ALL morning long while we were getting ready. Ryan doesn't see him very much (because he lives in Florida) but I am pretty sure he is obsessed with him now...I think we are going to need to start skyping or something. He will need his Uncle Nick fix. 

My brother Steven and his sweet girlfriend Claire were also so super helpful and showed up early to help run errands for us. They picked up all the food and also ran a last minute errand to get more ice when we realized that most of the ice we had was already melted! yikes! 

Of couse my mom and dad we amazing. My dad helped with all the heavy lifting and then also fixed our doors - yes so random, but our house is ridiculous and shifts so much (especially in this heat) anyhow our front door was a major pain to open and close, our guest bathroom door didn't lock (yikes), the laundry room door didn't shut AND the backdoor didn't lock. Whew - that's a lot of door problems. Plus he helped cut up the fruit for the fruit cups! And as for my mom, I think it goes with out saying how helpful she was. She is like having a double body around who knows exactly what needs to be done and then does it.  She can clean like no other and fixes the place up so that it looks sizzling. I LOVE my T :)

AND of course there was KEVIN. He was amazing! If you know Kevin then you know how he feels about parties....he is a fan of them unless he is hosting AND then he is ok until it's game time, which is when he pulls the "hmmm do we really want to do this?" attitude that drives a party fanatic (aka ME) NUTS. Anyhow, he was PERFECT. Enthusiastic, cheerful and super helpful. He helped set up all sorts of crafts and also did some handyman work with my dad. 

So you are probably wondering what I did??? Well, with all the help I had I was able to relax and go to the SPA. HA just kidding :) Just checking to see if you were still with me. Having everyone's help made it super awesome for me. I was able to relax and run a couple last minute errands. Of course I helped setting things up and then I was able to get ready and most importantly take some pre party picture! Yay!