Patton's Winter ONE-derland

Patton's birthday happened to be on a Saturday this year, so we were able to have his 1st birthday party on his actual birthday. Hurray! I can't believe my baby is already a year! When did this happen!?

Someone looks ready for their party!

The onesie that I made him.

So the theme was a winter ONE-derland, since his birthday is in the winter. So we had lots of various kinds of yummy cookies: Rolo & Payday cookies, gingerbread cookies, peanut butter chocolate cookies & snickerdoodles. I baked for 2 days straight! I also made snowmen out of powdered donuts!

Decorations above the food area. I hung clothes that Patton's worn in the past year. The outfit on the left is that one he came home from the hospital in. I swear that Patton was NEVER that tiny! He popped out the size that he is, I'm thoroughly convinced of it! :).

We also had chips, dip and guacamole! Yum!

The food on the left are penguins made out of olives, flavored cream cheese & carrots. I wish that I had taken a closer picture because they turned out REALLY cute! Thank you Pinterest! :)

More decorations!

We even had a make your own hot cocoa station & then we had different flavors of milk in the ice chest.

Decorations above the play area in our living room. The Patton pics are pictures from each month in the past 12 months, showing how he's changed from month to month. It turned out cute !

Matt & Em

The Kellys

The Casadys

Total we were expecting 37 people, including kids. My house is TINY! So we were pretty cramped, but we made it work! I need to work on getting us a bigger house before Patton's next party! Haha!

So after we ate some yummy goodness, Patton opened his gifts. This is Patton's awesome new cell phone so that he can leave Mommy's cell phone alone. . .one can only dream!

My adorable niece Remi.

Opening gifts! Patton got LOTS of clothes, which is exactly what he needed!

More proof that my home can actually fit that many people in it!

After opening gifts, we all sang to Patton and let him have at it with his cake. What's this stuff Momma?

Patton immediately grabbed his cake and flipped it over! Silly boy! So we turned it over and watched him as he carefully ate it! He didn't make a huge mess. . . he was just very cautious about what he was eating.

Everyone watching Patton eat his cake!

"Oh wait, is everyone looking at me?! Well then, I must smile and giggle and put on a show"-Patton. That's Patton's philosophy. Well, that was Patton's party. I wanted to make it a pretty short party, so as not to overwhelm Patton (or myself). Everyone had a good time, and more importantly, Patton had a good time. I can't believe he's already ONE! It really seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital. I know that sounds cliche, but it's totally true. Time really does speed up when you have a little one! I can't wait to see what this next year will bring Patton! WE LOVE YOU!

I've Been Practicing. . .

Look who's been practicing!

Patton's not quite walking yet, but he's sure trying! He cruises along EVERYTHING (and gets into EVERYTHING, might I add). He's taken about 5 steps on his own, but that's about it! Every day he takes more and more steps on his own more confidently. I know it's just a matter of time before he's running all over our house!

I'm trying Mama!

Here I come!

Whatcha doing Mama? That's his favorite thing to do. . . see and do whatever it is I'm doing! He's getting so big!

Our boy and his fish

We knew that the weekend of Patton's birthday would be crazy, so we decided to head to the Long Beach Aquarium the weekend before his birthday. We made sure to get there extra early so that Patton could have ample time with his fishies.

Patton had a good time at the aquarium. I think he was more frustrated this time because he wanted to touch the fishies but couldn't understand why there was glass in his way. He still had fun though!

The cute lil sea lions. We saw real ones while we were on our cruise in Cabo, but we weren't able to get this close to them. It was pretty cool!

The sharks in the touch tank. We opted to not let Patton touch the sharks since I'm sure he'd try to climb in there with them. That boy loves water!

All the Nemos and Doras. You could hear all the kids around us screaming their names! Too funny!

More fishies

I loved this giant sea turtle. . . he's just so cute! We were only able to stay in the aquarium for a few hours. Patton REALLY wanted to crawl around the aquarium and was frustrated that we wouldn't let him. So we left a bit early. We saw all the things we wanted though. I was hoping to see another great white shark, but we'll have to go back to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for that one! Our next aquarium visit will probably be the Baltimore Aquarium when we visit my parents, but perhaps we'll go to the Sea Life Aquarium in San Diego next. I dunno, we'll see! :)