party, morning after

We celebrated Eddie's birthday here in Chicago this past Saturday with a small afternoon open house and bbq. The weather was a tad on the cooler side for August, in the mid-60's, but luckily comfortable enough to be outside. I chose the theme of "The Hungry Caterpillar" because it is one of Eddie's favorite books and I think the transition from caterpillar to butterfly can symbolize the momentous changes that occur in the first year of life. You can see in the photos how we carried out the theme from the cake to the decor. We further extended the theme by showing Eddie's transformation in year one by putting all of the "Eddie and the Bear" photos on display - who knew the simple gift from Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Rick, which was delivered to us in the hospital, would have become our measuring stick on Eddie's growth throughout the year. We also hooked the computer up to the tv and had all of our photos of eddie running on a slideshow to one of the playlists I created for his birth. It truly was a tribute to E4.

The guests included Nonni and Gramps, Uncle Mike, Aunt Evie, Cousin Noah, Greg Buth, Tj & Jill Gliha (with baby in utero), Bryce & Hilary Prosser (also with baby on the way), our doula and friend Peyton and her kids Hope, Bowen and Jake, Tommy Carideo with sons Santino and Benicio and our friend from music class Madeline and her mom Debra. The afternoon flew by and Eddie seemed oblivious to the fact that he was the guest of honor. He seemed mesmerized most by the fact that we had our sliding door opened to the deck the whole day and so he kept going back and forth from deck to house and found much pleasure in doing so. Singing 'Happy Birthday' to him did not seem to phase him as he stoically just sat there. And he had no interest in the cake really - after being served a piece he started to cry and wanted out of the high chair. We only opened a few gifts that evening, and of the few opened, the favorite seemed to be the Gumby - coincidentally it's a great teething toy. So we opened the majority of gifts the next morning which had a whole Xmas morning feel to it as Eddie paraded around in his pjs and we watched him play with his new trucks, blocks and all the balloons. He loves his gift from his Uncle Charlie - a duck that waddles around to the tune of "Camptown Races." We will have to take a video of Eddie with this toy because it is hilarious - he dances and mimics it and when it stops he tries to figure out how to turn it on again. All in all it was a nice party. Of course I over stressed myself with all the cooking and preparations but I did have time to enjoy myself and chat with guests. My only regret is that I didn't have the chance to capture more of the day on film, namely our guests. Luckily my sister took some great photos with her new camera which are posted above. Enjoy.