Oh my little buddy is turning into a little boy. Seems crazy to think that this time last year Micah had just arrived and we were trying to figure out what the heck we were supposed to be doing with him! And now he is 1, crawling around, climbing and getting into EVERYTHING (and destroying everything in his path....I have given up hope of a clean house ever again) But it has been the best year of our life so far. He brings us so much joy and laughter each day. He loves to smile and when he gives his belly laugh, you can't help but laugh along. I know I am turning into one of those ranting and raving about your kids mom, but he truly is the best kid ever! :-) And I don't care anymore if I am crazy - as long as Micah smiles, I am okay with being the crazy mom!
And crazy is what I was for his 1st birthday. Having been working my butt of all school year with a large caseload of kids, I found that being home for the summer I felt I had so much "free time" now that Micah is becoming a bit more independent. So free time + birthday party planning + Pinterest = Crazy Mom. I may have gone a bit overboard on the whole party thing, but hey, Micah only turns 1 once! (And next year he will only turn 2 once....but anyways) I had a fun time getting it all ready and organized. We went with the robot theme, which is not a common theme that you can find everywhere. So it just set me up for a challenge, and when I have a challenge I sometimes can't stop myself. So here are some pics of what Micah's big day turned out to be!
So welcome to the party!
Our favorite picture of Micah - taken last 4th of July by Andrew and my sister. Yes - we put him on the driveway at 1 month (he was on a blanket!)
Here is the guest book table. I saw an idea where kids took a picture in a robot head, and I thought it was so cute but all of Micah friends are around the age of 1 and might not cooperate. So for the guest book, each person took their picture in a robot head and then signed a card to put in Micah's baby book. Of course not everyone was thrilled to become a robot - but it turned out AWESOME!
Over the past 52 weeks we took a picture of Micah each Saturday with a white onesie on the same fabric. It was time consuming and at times a bit frustrating (especially when he learned to roll over!) but we did it and did not miss a week. And once we got all the pictures up, it was well worth it.
Robot Grandpa (we will crop each picture before putting it in the book.) This was the theme robot Andrew designed - we had an orange one as well for the lady-bots!
Since this was a kids party - we did have some entertainment. We were outside on a beautiful day so we had robot duckie races in the baby pool.
And some good ol' fashion corn hole. With non other than some robot bean bags! (making the bags probably took the most time, but they turned out great!)
And don't forget the robot pinata. Micah was a little confused as I had let him play with his robot friend when it came in the mail. After Andrew reminded me that we would be requiring Micah to beat his new "friend" with a stick, I hid him in the bedroom until the party. Poor Micah - he was so confused as to why we wanted to hurt his friend!
And don't forget the food! It was a cook out with hamburgers, hotdogs and all the fixings. I did have a bit of fun with the food decor as well.
Robot Liquid Fuel
Robot Jello
I found a great website that helped with the labels for the party. Andrew helped change the design a bit to make room for his own custom robot design.
And of course, the cake.
Or I should say cake...cupcakes...marshmallows....smash cake. Thanks to my mom who helped with decorating the cupcakes! We just dipped the marshmallows in white chocolate and sprinkles for a little sweet treat. We got the idea for the cake from this website.
Andrew and I took on the task of learning how to work with fondant (because we didn't have anything else to do...) We decided not to do his whole smash cake out of fondant as he wouldn't be able to dig into it. So we just made a little robot head with some fondant for the eyes and mouth.
And of course Micah needed at some cake.
Micah was not a fan of the cake - maybe next year!
And don't forget your gift bags...
It was a great day - and worth all of the time and energy we spent on everything!
Happy Birthday to our Little Buddy!
It's Micah's 1st official snow day, and we are doing nothing but playing, relaxing and of course snacking. They called the snow day last night when there was absolutely nothing on the ground. But when I woke up to thunder and some snow falling, I thought okay at least there is something out there to justify the day off. But now at 11AM there is about 7 inches covering the driveway. I feel like I am back in Iowa! With large amounts of snow not really common here, they sometimes go a little crazy when we get a few inches. But in this case, I think they weren't that far off. And of course I am never going to complain about a snow day. Micah hasn't had much of a chance to play in the snow since we usually get a very small amount and then it melts really quickly. 
This morning we tried "pudding painting". It was fun until he realized he could eat the pudding. Then it just turned into snack time. So we both had some chocolate pudding at about 8:30 this morning. Hey, it's a snow day! (and sorry for embarrassing you, Micah if you read this in the future - it's your first shirtless photoshoot! I didn't feel like doing chocolate laundry.)
Christmas presents ROCK!
