Ride on over for a big 1st birthday celebration!

Our family arrived Friday night to get in some special time with the man of honor!

Grandpa made Chase his own chair for his birthday.  It was such a special gift.  A perfect fit for a perfect gentleman. Chase loved it right away!

Chase was smitten with Great-Grandpa.  He thought he could turn on the charm and trade his legos for GG's beer.  Nice try....

We brought home some fun balloons for decorations.  Chase went nuts and I was afraid this might have been the highlight of his big birthday! hahaha

For the past couple of weeks I have been making little crafts and decorations for Chase's "Little Red Wagon" themed birthday party.

Saturday we celebrated Chase's first birthday with all our friends and family.


The day was magical.

Our good friend Amy stunned us with her talent once again with "Chase" monogrammed red wagon cookie favors!  They were every bit delicious as they were adorable!

As each guest arrived, we had them add their fingerprint "balloon" to Chase's wagon to document all our friends and family who came to celebrate our little nugget.

The sign reads:

I won't remember that you came,

so leave your fingerprint and name,

so when I am older I can see,

My friends who love and care for me.

The plans and decor had been a lot of fun with surprisingly little stress!  I wanted things to be perfect for my best boy's big day.  But, after Hurricane Irene took aim for the east coast on the same day, I thew perfect out the window and just prayed people would show up!

 

 

And show they did.  Our hearts swell just thinking about all the people who came to celebrate!  All of Chase's grandparents, GREAT Grandparents (Hamilton), aunts, and uncles ascended upon our home bringing nothing but love for our little guy.  The warmth and love in our home was palpable as it continued to fill with all the special people in our lives that have welcomed Chase into their lives   I thanked each and every one of them for the love and support they have given us over the last year (especially those first 4 months), and for making Chase a part of their lives.  We especially thanked our parents, for being exceptional role models and for instilling in both of us, unconditional love.  We can only hope to be a fraction of the parents to Chase as they have been to us.

We talked and ate and played and celebrated!  Oh did we celebrate!  There were babies everywhere and love threaded throughout the conversations and chatter.

Hurricane Irene spared our little party and the celebration was amazing!

Chase was so surprised by all the visitors, especially his Nana who he has come to love very much!

We love our friends; and without them, we couldn't have gotten through this year.  Having a baby is magical, but it is hard.  The colic is now becoming a distant memory.  That is thanks to our family and friends that pulled us through the darker moments, encouraged us to keep going and celebrated the joy.  They said it would get better.  And, boy did it get BETTER!  LIFE IS AMAZING.  Neither if us could have ever imagined how fulfilled our lives could be by bringing a child into this would.  And we didn't get just any child.  We were lucky enough and blessed by God to get Chase.

So we celebrated.

We watched a video I made of Chase's first year.  I stood up and looked at all the people we love and who love our family and I cried.  My heart will be full for a long time after that afternoon.

All too quickly, the big moment came.  The SMASH CAKE!  And our little guy did NOT disappoint!  He was cautious at first, but as the frosting and cake oozed through his tiny, pudgy fingers.... the fun began!  He destroyed it.  No crumb went un-smashed!  I think Daddy was most proud! haha

We said good bye to all our friends and family, and thank them once more for being the incredible people they are.  Oh, and we smiled, and celebrated one more time our little Chase!  Who knew balloons could be so fun....

We can hardly believe he will be one next week!