Buggy Birthday

We celebrated Henry's birthday a little early this year.  On Saturday, we had some family and friends over for a little bug-themed party for our own little love bug.  Eric's parents were at the very end of their month long stay here, and we thought we should celebrate before they left town!  I already told you all how I leave things to the very last minute, so I was not feeling very confident about the party and how it would come together but, sure enough, it did.  It was small and simple, and exactly as I had hoped!  We did nothing over the top, but had just a few small touches to make it special and fit our little bug theme.  Before I go on and on about things you've already heard, here are some pictures from his big day! The camera was passed around and things were chaotic, which the photos show by being a little blurry, but that's ok.  They are still memories of a very wonderful day where Henry was the happiest boy.   It was so nice to spend the day with people we love!

 I hung each of his "month pictures", so everyone could see how he has grown over the year.  Look at that sweet little baby chub up there!!

 I am not a baker.  I definitely cook better than I bake, and decorating is even worse.  But I was ok with that, I like that they are homemade and not professionally done, although part of me wishes they had been as cute as I had imagined. The cupcakes are just simple chocolate, and we had planned to make cute little grass frosting with bugs on top but that obviously didn't go as planned.  The frosting was too thin to stand up like grass, and we couldn't get the color right, and essentially we were fools when we saw the cupcake book at Michaels and thought "oh we can do that!" ha! Oh well.  We made "dirt" and such on top of the cakes and put little gummy worms because I couldn't find but toppers in time.  I was bummed that they look kind of creepy crawly and less cute bugs but that's ok! They are just cupcakes, I can get over it. They tasted like chocolate so what is not to like.  Henry's cake I wanted handmade because I didn't want to load him with more sugar than he needed.  I wanted it to be sweet and delicious, but not just empty sugar.  It's an apple cake.  Cinnamon, apple chunks, etc. with a cream cheese frosting.  He had way more fun squishing the frosting than eating the cake... he probably ate a few bites.

 "Pill bugs" were chocolate covered acai/blueberries and I've enjoyed eating the leftovers since...

 I cut out little tags and attached bug stickers for little drink tags.  They were one of my favorite parts!

 Grubs in a blanket instead of pigs in a blanket. mmm!

 The framed print is Henry's birth announcement that my sisters had made for us (from Etsy) after H was born.  I love it, reading over the details every day.  The little book is Henry's baby book, which I need to do some more work on now that his first year is almost over!

 I made the most simple birthday banner out of cardstock and scalloped labels...

 He thought that everyone singing to him was just the most wonderful thing!

 After a quick bath, he was ready to play with a new toy-- our friends got it for him because he loves their so much, this face comes when he pushes the on button.  He is just so proud when he turns things on!  See the end of the post for a quick video of this moment!

 Pure joy.

The end of the video just obviously proves how great of a videographer I am :)