{She Said} Zach's Splish Splash First Birthday Bash!

Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Ryleigh came in the night before and, along with Becky, were there all day Saturday to help in preparations - they ran errands, made sandwiches, cleaned, helped decorate, and gave moral support. As they say... it takes a village!

During set up, I tested the duckie bath tub that doubled as a cooler for the drinks during the party.

Everything turned out great. The decorations were fun and I will tell you- I made a few things by hand: the storybook pennants and the photo garland. I got many comments during the planning process to the effect of, "you know he won't remember any of it." Every time a new decoration went up, the first time Zach came into the room and saw it he would just sit and stare at it in wonder. He would reach out toward it and look at us smiling. It was ALL worth it... it clearly gave him joy.

Becky cut duck feet out of posterboard and laminated them. We taped those down on the walk up to the door...

We also had a bubble machine going by the door!

Inside, we had the storybook pennants, the tablescape, the photo garland, bubble decals all over the walls, and I brought all of my rubber ducks (that students have given me) home from school. We had a photo mat for everyone to sign, a mini ballpit for the little ones, and a slide show of pics throughout the year of (tasteful) pics of Zach in the bath!

 For favors, Becky, Alexandra, and I made blue soap with a rubber duckie in it for everyone.Ryleigh spent a lot of time the morning of the party putting perfect little ribbons on all of the favor bags.

 Food consisted of veggies, cheese and "quackers," egg salad sandwiches, and other little snackies. Becky, Ryleigh, and Alexandra made an assembly line 10 minutes before the party started and cut all of the egg salad sandwiches into a duck shape with a cookie cutter.

A friend of mine from school, Michelle, made the cupcakes and they were a hit! Vanilla and chocolate. Some had little ducks surrounded in buttercream bubbles, some with blue, yellow, and orange sprinkles, and some with fondant 1s.

It was a magical celebration of our little boy. You could just see how surrounded by love he was and he just soaked it all up.

 Side note: he didn't make too much of a mess with this activity... that's my boy!

 Jonathan was on trash duty during the present opening activities. At one point, and I can't remember why, it became necessary for him to dump all the trash on Becky...

Matt's parents sent books with speakers that they had recorded them reading the story for him...

Zach LOVES his Aunts and Uncles...

At one point, a group of long time family friends gathered with Becky, Zach, and I to take a picture. After we were finished I looked at Zach and said, "all done, yay!" and he started clapping. I said, "that's right!" and started clapping with him. After a beat I noticed that the room had gotten silent and all eyes were on Zach clapping and being excited. Soon everyone was laughing and cheering and he was just looking around with this huge grin on his face and clapping. Like I said... magical.