Though Shane does not turn 1 until this coming Tuesday, we celebrated his birthday with family and friends yesterday. We are beyond blessed to have people in our lives who care for our kids and take time out of their own busy lives to help us celebrate them. I probably say this in every birthday party post, but we are just so grateful to be doing life with such generous and loving people.
Shane was looking quite distinguished today. Thanks, Lisa, for the perfectly-fitting-the-theme shirt!
Since Shane was born during a very snowy and cold time of year, I decided to fully embrace this and go with a Winter ONEderland theme for his party. I thought I was pretty clever to come up with this term, but apparently I'm not the first one to use it. =) As my researching and planning progressed, penguins became the main focus. And, trust me when I say that if you ever need to to plan a penguin party, there is no shortage of ideas out there!
The invitation:
(In real life, the red line wouldn't be there!)
My mom made some wonderful batches of chili to serve for lunch, and we ordered some chicken as well. For the rest of the meal, I was determined to go with an all-out penguin theme. I know, I am a little crazy.
Igloo shaped cheese ball, with snowflake crackers...
Olive & Cream Cheese penguins...
"Ice Chips" and "Ice Cubes"...
"Penguin Food" and "Tuxedos"...
PB&J "Snow-wiches"...
Penguin fruit snacks...
Hot chocolate bar...
Penguin cupcakes...though they came out a little "owl-ish" looking...
Crafts...
Our kiddos' finished "Footprint Penguins"...aren't they cute?!
(I'm so proud of Caleb, who cut out his footprints all by himself!)
(Craft found here.)
(Craft found here.)
Bean Bag Toss...the creation of this was surely a team effort. Kris built the thing, I painted the penguin, and Nana sewed all the penguin beanbags!
The kids had fun throwing the bean bags back and forth through the hole....
And, a bunch of penguin beach balls were also a hit! I wish I had more pictures of the kids playing with these...
Singing "Happy Birthday"...
Shane loved his cupcake, along with the cookies that were on top. LOVED it.
He ate it all. With no problem.
We asked that guests, instead of bringing a gift, bring a coat, hat, or mittens. Everything that was brought will be donated to a nearby community that has a need for these items this winter. We collected a lot of warm and wonderful things....THANK YOU!
Penguin washcloth puppets for all the kiddos to take home...
Overall, Shane thought the party was a hit!
To top off the day (as if there wasn't enough excitement already), we went to the zoo to see the lights. As we were leaving, we ran into this guy and just had to take a picture with him. As you can see, Shane was thrilled.
Today, Shane opened some presents. He wasn't too interested in this. He did enjoy playing with some of the paper and some of the gifts, though he mostly just crawled around while his siblings fought over who would open what next.
Caleb and Meredith helping taking over the present-opening process....
Nana made Shane the sweetest present....a knitted penguin. Shane immediately loved this soft friend. He hugged it, smiled at it, "talked" to it, and kissed it. Seriously, this guy is the cutest thing ever. What a sweet sweet gift, thank you Nana!
Thank you so much to everyone who helped us with any and every part of celebrating our sweet baby boy! I can't believe he will be one in just a couple of short days. He brings indescribable joy to our lives each and every day. We love our Shaner-bug so so much!
Stay tuned for a "Shane-is-officially-1" post later on this week!
