Henry Turned 1!

It's hard to believe, but my baby is one year old! When Heidi and Zach were both little, I chose a theme for every birthday and bought minimal party supplies to go along with that theme. I believe Drew and Kylie had one themed party as well, but then life got super busy and my planning went by the wayside.
So much happened in Henry's first year of life, that I wanted the celebration to be one special party! I wanted to return to my "roots" and follow the "Go Big or Go Home" motto for his birthday. While I managed to do lots of the things I wanted to do, I didn't get quite everything due to life once again getting in the way with my Grandpa's death.
I ended up choosing a theme to honor/remember my dad so that I would know he was present at the party. At his funeral, someone sang the song that my dad and I danced to at my wedding: Faith Hill - There You'll Be. One of the lines that has always stood out was "In my dreams I'll always see you soar above the sky". Initially, it was convenient that my dad was in the airforce... then it became much more symbolic when he made his way to heaven. So, there came the theme for Henry's party: Airplanes and "soaring above the sky"! I decided to design my own invitation so that it could look just the way I wanted :-)

Once I had that finished, I made food labels to match the theme, and m&m goody bags that said "Thanks for flying with us today".  The kids' treats were under a sign that said "Baggage Claim" and included airplane magnets that I made and candy airplanes that were made from push pops, a stick of gum, and lifesavers. Thank you Pinterest for all the ideas! (The day of the party got so busy that I only managed to get a few pictures, so I'm including the links from Pinterest that I used to make the items)...

http://www.createcraftlove.com/2012/11/clothespin-airplanes-party-favors.html
http://www.armelleblog.com/2011/05/airplane-party-favor-bags.html

All in all, the party was a success. I only wish that I would have taken more pictures! The ones I did manage to get were after everyone had eaten, but before cake... One of these days, I'll put it all together! Here are some more pics from his party...

Purchased a plain cake to turn into my own creation with his invitation and one of the airplanes I made on top.

The treat table, complete with the airplane cake Dan created and my dad's hat.

Each goodie bag was their own popcorn bucket.

Angel food cupcakes with "cloud" frosting.

Veggie tray with a pepper to hold the dip

This is what the food labels looked like. They were supposed to resemble clouds with the label in the center.

Great Grandma feeding Henry his birthday lunch

Big boy finally figured out how to drink from a cup!

Yes buddy, this is all for YOU!

Clothes are off and ready for cake!

Took him a while to figure it out, but eventually he dug in

The end result :-)

Henry was so funny when we all sang Happy Birthday! He had no idea what we were all doing, but when it was all done, he was pleased and had a big smile!