Greyden's 1st Birthday!

If you're good with numbers (or have ever read this blog before) you know that today is NOT Greyden's 1st birthday. It's not even remotely close. In fact, it is almost his 2nd birthday. But with all of the craziness of packing up our lives and moving across the country, settling into our new home, and having a second baby, I haven't had time to write about it. My new goal is to post it by his second birthday.

Greyden's 1st birthday was bittersweet for me. I was sad that we'd have to do it without our families there, but I also knew that our whole Texas family would be there with bells on. Because I told them to. In order to sweeten the deal a little bit, I decided to do a football theme for his birthday. I figured that if I do the party on a Sunday during a Texans game, our friends wouldn't be able to use the "oh, we have plans" excuse to miss a 1 year old's birthday party, since we all got together every Sunday for the games anyway. (They were SO not getting out of this one.) So football it was. I even made a football cake! Yes, I baked and decorated it myself. It was actually pretty fun. I even made him a smash cake that I couldn't wait to see him destroy.

The wine was for mommy. And, one year later, it's STILL sitting in our wine rack because surprise! I was pregnant. AGAIN.  

We were SO excited to give Greyden his smash cake. There were about 5 cameras trained on him and ready to start shooting.

He was so happy pre-cake too....

 

 We were a little surprised when he completely ignored it didn't dive right in.

So Kevin figured he'd give him a taste of it.

He was NOT having it.

Mommy even tried to get in on the action with no luck

Maybe he was intimidated by the size of it? We decided to try a cupcake. And a different high chair, just in case that was the issue.

Oh hells no. Not digging the cupcake either.

On the other hand, Uncle Kenny was digging the cupcake.

After we realized that the cake thing just wasn't going to happen, we put Greyden back in his happy place to calm him down a bit.

Then it was time for the presents! The fedora was from Uncle Paul and Aunt Carla. He also received a couple of different shape sorters from Aunt Nicole & Uncle Joe and Aunt Lisa and Uncle Jeff, and some bath toys from Aunt Jill and Uncle Kenny. Hailey picked out a workbench for him, complete with a hammer. Awesome. The common denominator? All of his toys made noise. Lots and lots of noise.

In addition to his other presents, Uncle Kevin and Aunt Sandy showed up with this little gem, which, an entire year later, we still can't get him out of. Luckily we use it outdoors now since it's summer (and we're in Michigan). In the winter we were constantly pushing him around the house in it. It was wonderful. And, just so that I didn't keep all of that kind of love to myself, I bought one for my friends Nikki and Katie's kids, as well as for my niece Addie. Pretty sure everyone kind of hates me right now. Katie said that her daughter won't go for walks in anything else. That wouldn't be a problem, but Alana has to get out about every 20 feet or so to inspect the tires. Love you guys!



These are the guys who got suckered in to attending a toddler birthday party. I'm sure they'll plan a little better next time.

Since the cake part of party #1 didn't go quite as well as we'd hoped, we were excited to try again at his second party in Michigan. Aunt Kerry made him an Elmo cake and another little smash cake for him to destroy. 

You can see the anticipation in his eyes....

AAAHHHHH!!!!! Get me out of here!

 

No, really! Get me out!



We thought he might do better if he were on Daddy's lap. Um, no. Not so much.

I really wish I could've gotten him pushing the cake away (by the plate, since he wasn't even willing to touch it to get it away from him).

Since we didn't have Greyden's happy place at my parent's house, we retreated to the living room for presents instead.

Kevin and I (okay, just I) got him a Pottery Barn Kids Anywhere Chair. We also got him a Little Tykes play set that never even left the box since we found out we were moving the day after it arrived on our doorstep.



SQUEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

Everyone made fun of me for buying a chair for a 1 year old, since he never stayed in one place for more than 20 seconds. But here we are an entire year later and he STILL uses it every.single.day. By far the best purchase I've made for the kid. He won't outgrow it until he's 20. And yes, I do plan on sending it to college with him.


Stay tuned for the next installment of Greyden's birthday, his 2nd one, coming soon! Really, really soon. In just over 5 weeks, I'm going to have a 2 year old!