Cooper's sock monkey party

Yesterday we celebrated Cooper's first birthday!  His birthday is actually today (Sunday the 25th), but we figured that Saturday would provide a better chance for our friends and family to be able to get together to celebrate him.  The theme of the party was sock monkey.  I figured that since this might be the only party that Cooper won't have an opinion on, I could do something I thought was cute.  He has several sock monkeys and I saw some cute ideas, so that's what we went with.  (There is probably going to be more information here than you care about, but I would like to be able to remember later).

We decided to have an 11:30 start time.  I wanted Cooper to be able to have time for a nap before people arrived and still be able to take a late afternoon nap.  This also gave time for friends and family who had to drive an hour or two.  Because 11:30 is right around lunch time, we decided we would serve lunch.  We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, and then had cheesy potatoes, baked beans, chips, and cantaloupe.  We prepared the cheesy potato casserole and baked beans both in crockpots--which allowed us to start those earlier and not have to use the oven.  We kept the drinks pretty simple by only have 4 options; sweet tea, crystal light fruit punch, water, and diet coke.  Although we don't have the largest house, we decided to host the party at our house.  A lot of the people that were invited to the party haven't been to our new house yet so we figured this would be the perfect opportunity.  The weather cooperated well and we were able to utilize the back deck and driveway for extra space.  It was pretty hot out though--if only it would have been about 10-15 degrees cooler :)

And now to the pictures!  I don't have many...but hopefully I'll be able to get some copies of pictures from my mother-in-law and others who took pictures.  I was able to snap some decoration pictures before people arrived and then I have some pictures of Cooper eating cake and playing with some of his gifts.

Decorated built-in

Cooper's smash cake

Posters hanging in the kitchen

Close-up from the built-in with cake and cupcakes

Outside the front door

Sock monkey wreath for the front door

Balloons scattered around and on high chair

Start of food line

Centerpiece on the table

The grilling master :)

And those are the only pictures I have until cake time.  After I took Eric's picture outside, people were starting to arrive and it was about time for Cooper to get up from his nap, and my camera went away.  So sadly, no food pictures, no drink station pictures, no cute striped straw pictures, no cute little girls coloring pictures, and no party goer pictures :(  I think that's the sad part....  So if you're reading this and have pictures, please send them our way!  Eric got some pictures on his camera, but I think some of the settings were off for some of those pictures.

Okay....so we opened gifts....which consisted of Cooper sitting on the floor playing with a balloon, while his mommy, daddy, and 3 of his little friends opened his gifts.  He was very uninterested-- he was too preoccupied with the balloon and you better not even think about taking it away from him. Or if you walk by with a balloon, he might mistakenly think that you have his balloon... trouble!

After gifts, we sang Happy Birthday and let Cooper dig in to his cake.  He was a little slow to start, but it didn't take too long for him to begin shoving it in with handfuls.  Eric and I made/decorated the cake and cupcakes.  We stuck with classic chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, and then layered Cooper's little cake with chocolate and vanilla.

A little slow to start...

quickly decided he liked the cake

covered in cake then straight to a bath :)

Toys? What toys?  B.A.L.L.O.O.N.S.

He later started playing with toys

showing off his cute shirt

We changed him back into his party outfit after he woke up from his afternoon nap.  I wanted to get some pictures of him in his cute shirt.  My friend Sarah from college made this shirt.  Check out her Etsy and she can custom make a cute shirt for you!

That is our quick party rundown.  We had a great time and Cooper enjoyed himself too!  We loved getting to celebrate him and his first year of life.  I'll do a one year update sometime soon after we go to the doctor this week and get all of his stats.