Harrison had such a blast celebrating his first birthday with a party! Initially, Nick and I were going to just do very small and simple. However, we thought of a fun theme and it snowballed from there. While we did have some fun decorations, it didn't take too long to put it together. That said, we may go more low-key for #2. It took us a long time to recover. Well, more so our house....:)
We were so lucky to have lots of family and friends come to celebrate with us! Thank you to everyone for attending and helping with the big day!
Our theme was Curious George. We figured it was perfect since Harrison is extremely curious, climbs like a monkey and loves bananas. For decorations, we put out little candy bananas on the tables and pictures of Harrison throughout the year. The kids also had monkey masks waiting for them once they arrived. (However, I think they may have been scary to Harrison...) We also had guest sign, Curious George and the Birthday Surprise, to help Harrison remember who came to his party!
Nick took lead in desert. He found a woman in Cedar Rapids that made specialty cupcakes and cake for fun. I went in thinking, "Hey, they probably won't look super professional but were very reasonably priced." However, I was blown away! We loved how the cupcakes and smash cake turned out!
Food was also top-notch but, unfortunately, not pictured. We went with sandwiches, pasta salads, and appetizers. We made sure to include Monkey Bites (credit: Aunt Nicole for the name): skewers filled with cheese cubes, grapes and banana chunks. Our monkey's favorite things!
One thing for sure is that Harrison was not lacking in the present department! He was so spoiled and is having a blast playing with all his new toys! Our favorite part of the day was when he would crawl on top of his presents, clap and dance for everyone watching him open his presents. Someone is not afraid of the limelight ;)
We ended the celebration with cake! We were interested to see how Harrison would react to all the attention he was getting while we sang to him. He didn't seem to mind one bit (should have known after the watching him open presents). However, he was not a fan of his birthday hat. Note for next birthday: no hat. He also needed lots of encouragement to try his cake and even then, he didn't eat much. Oh well!
Overall, we had one GREAT birthday party!
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