Months and months of planning for baby J’s 1st birthday party have climaxed today.  His party is over, the baking gone.  The decorations down.  All that’s left is a whole load of dishes to wash and props to pack up.

I wanted to have a big party for his birthday in part because it was to be his first ever, but also to distract myself from the stark reality that he is getting older {and me as well}.  I think it worked pretty well, and I really held it all together until tonight.  As J was drinking his milk and I was snuggling him close I couldn’t hold it in anymore and I cried.

This past year has been incredible.  I’ve had the most fun and felt more love than I ever thought possible.  I love being this little guy’s momma, he is just so lovely.

I am excited for the future, and all the cute little things that will happen along the way.

Today was great, we laughed with friends, enjoyed time with family and got to see J be the most social he has been in a long time.  He’s usually so shy, and with the party being right through his afternoon nap we expected the worst but planned as best as we could.  M took J to my parents’ in the morning and he had a great snooze in the car which I believe helped him out tremendously.  He was happy, energetic and curious.  I can’t wait to see the pictures.

Speaking of pictures, I have to apologize for the lack of photos in advance.  While I did spend an obscene amount of time and effort preparing for this party, crafting, baking and so on…I took no pictures.  We had the lovely Sarah from Labour of Love Photography {same lovely photog who took my maternity and baby pics} come and photograph the event, so I promise you lots of detailed pictures and party pics in the next couple of weeks.  For now you will have to live with the teasers

We finished off the day with a long walk.  Although Michael and I are just completely exhausted from the prepping and planning, we needed to get some fresh air.  It was a beautiful first spring day today and I absolutely loved every minute of it.  In a rather ironic nostalgic way the walk reminded me a lot of our walks when J was tiny.  It was perfect.

For baby J’s real birthday {which fell on Thursday} we didn’t do much.  A quiet family dinner, just Michael, my mom and I.  Some champagne and cupcakes.  But as you can see baby J wasn’t too impressed with his cupcake.  Maybe its because he is used to the taste of fresh baked cake from me, but he took one taste of the cake, eyed it suspiciously and promptly left the table   He sure makes me laugh some times.

I hope you all had as lovely of a weekend as we have.

**lastly…the winner from last week’s birthday necklace giveaway is….#7.  Sara! congrats mama!