Let's Have A Ball

For James' first birthday, we had a bouncing ball party. It was lots of fun. Here are some highlights of the time. I think our camera had a fingerprint or something on the lens, so the pictures are a little bit blurry. It couldn't be from the fact that Elizabeth loves to take pictures and manhandles our camera in the process. :) Oh well.
The party was relatively small - Grandma & Poppy, Granmama & Beto, Uncle Evan & Aunt Amy, Uncle Richard & Aunt Ali, Richard & Lynn (very good friends of the family, kind of like surrogate grandparents for Elizabeth & James), and then some friends - Nova & Karen and their little boy Aidan. On a side note - Aidan is about to turn 2 and when he talks about Elizabeth he calls her "the big girl". Pretty funny now, but I'm guessing she's not going to like it in about 10 years. :)
So, we decorated the house with balls - toy balls, paper lanterns, a string of paper balls that I made with fishing line, polka dot tablecloths. We also brought out the ball pit that we got Elizabeth for her first birthday. The party favors were bags of balls - a rubber ball and a beach ball. The food went along with the theme - donut holes, grapes, sausage balls, melon balls, round crackers with round slices of cheese, round chips with salsa. Dave was very patient with me as I did all the ball things I wanted to do. But, when I started talking about cutting the cheese slices into circles, I think he thought I had lost it. Here was the conversation:
Me: Do you think it's worth the time to cut the cheese slices into circles?
D: No.
Me: But then they will be the only thing that won't be round. It will mess up the theme.
D: I don't know what it's like to be OCD, so go ahead.
Ahh, what a great husband he is. :)
I made the cake the night before and it cracked during the night. It didn't really turn out as cute as I would have liked, but oh well.James wasn't really sure about the whole candle thing, but Elizabeth helped him blow it out.He didn't need any help eating his cupcake though.When we were able to get him interested in opening presents at all, it was only for a few seconds, and pretty much only to eat the wrapping paper. Elizabeth helped him open presents too.When I was little my grandfather got me a "hoppity horse". It's a big rubber ball with a horse head on it that you can hop around on. It's pretty fun and Elizabeth has enjoyed playing with it at my parents house, but it's not super safe, especially when the kids are young and don't have much control. So, my parents bought James this safer "hoppity horse". Elizabeth had to try it out also.James enjoyed the ball pit, but wasn't nearly as excited about it as Elizabeth when she first got it. But, he did enjoy diving into it a time or two as seen here. I feel like we didn't get that many pictures. For more on the party you can visit Uncle Evan & Aunt Amy's blog about it.