Goo's Birthday Party

On Saturday afternoon we had Grace's first birthday party! Her birthday isn't (wasn't) for another week, but since we'll be traveling on her actual birthday, and since Grandma Lala was in town, we decided to have it this weekend. Since Goo was born, I've been excited for her summer birthday so that we could have an outside party. It was windy and cool all morning, and we weren't sure if the weather was going to want to cooperate with us, but by 4:00 it was perfectly warm, but not hot, and the wind had died down. Yay! The plan was to have a cookout with 40 or so of our best friends, and have some back yard games and that sort of thing. Everything went well, and a good time was had by all (as far as I know). I have, oh about a zillion pictures to share, so I'll cut the chatter.

Happy Birthday my sweet Baby Grace! We love you SO much!

The birthday girl, ready for her par-tay!
I got the full sheet cake. Yes, it was way too much, but the half sheet was borderline not enough for our crowd. Oh well, Jim's coworkers will enjoy some Happy Birthday Goo cake.
Brenda and Grace.
Caleb is ready to get crackin' on the food!
Ashli making wise selections.
Grace never had a shortage of buddies to hold her, and Mylea was usually first in line! She's a great babysitter!
Lily's "best friend" Julianna.
Hayden, getting ready to chow down!
Don't mess with these tough guys! (Paul and Michael)
We had to wake Lily up from a much needed, way to late in the day nap. She was pretty grumpy, but after some time at the "grandma" table (with Mary, Deloris, and Grandma Lala) she cheered up.
More tough guys; Chris, Mike, and Mike.
If you don't know these two lovely ladies, you should. They're just wonderful! (Jen and Katrina)
The games start! The first one was the old egg-in-the spoon race. I'm explaining the concept to the littlest group.
Julianna, Lily, Elijah, Jimmy, and Owen were all ready to go!
Lily dropped and stepped upon her egg right off the bat. That was the moment when I realized, "I should have boiled more than 5 eggs!"
Winner winner! Chicken dinner! Way to go Elijah!
Now it was the older kids' turn. They had to go in heats since we were down to only four eggs.
The first heat, which Jessica won.
The second heat, which was a tie between Nathan and Caleb. And this was the moment when I realized I needed to have more ribbons than just enough for one winner per race. Now I know why the soccer coaches give a trophy to every kid. :)
Some gratuitous party-goer shots:

Marci
Ben and Caleb
Kevin, Lydia, and Emily (I believe Vance was having a grand old time playing in the dirt during most of the party, and could not be disturbed for trivial things like pictures.)
Merit and Brylee enjoy the bubble machine.

Lily and Jim watching the festivities.
Lily found her way back to Mary.

Now it's time for the 12 years and up egg in the spoon race. Due to a high casualty rate of my hard boiled eggs, we opted for plastic Easter eggs for this race... and smaller spoons too.

These two look like trouble. (Amelia and Brenda)
A whole group of trouble! (Katie, Amelia, Brenda, Chris, Linda, Cindy, and Mike)
Some serious racers here.
And they're off! I think Chris had lost his egg already! Drat! (Brenda won, by the way)
Whose birthday is this? Oh yeah, Graces, right. Got it!

This is my glamor shot. I'm running for Potato Sack Queen. Which means... It's time for the POTATO SACK RACE!! Woo hoo!
Caleb and Hayden practicing for the big race.
Caleb and Nathan tied for first.
Can you believe that only three people ages 12 and up wanted to do a potato sack race? :)
Cindy was our winner. She beat the young 'ens because she has years of potato sack practice.

There were only two 4 and under's who wanted to participate in the potato sack race; Lily and Julianna. And by the way, you will never in your life see anything more precious than these two potato sack racing. Not really racing, just doing it together. Waiting for each other, and making sure to fall down when the other falls down. Adorable!

Katrina said, "Jump around so I can see how you do it..." and Lily did oblige. :)
Julianna has her game face on.
Cutest race EVER.


We're buddies!
Time for the Oreo race everyone!
So here's a funny story. We were playing the Minute To Win It game where you stick an Oreo on your head, and then contort your face until you get it in your mouth. I decided to do a quick demonstration so that everyone got the idea. I'd never done it before, but I stuck it on my head, scrunched my face a bit, and about 5 seconds later, I caught the Oreo in my mouth. Easy as pie! Well, I really made it look easy, but it was just luck because it took everyone else a couple of minutes to get theirs in their mouths. I wish I'd been on Minute To Win It! I'd have won some MONEY! :)

Argh matey! This here's how you do it!

Our contestants: Kara the Killer Shelten
Jen Just-Don't-Make-Me-Laugh Rude
Amelia the Annihilator
Kathy I'm-Ready-For-My-Closeup Taylor
Jim I-Think-I-Fell-Asleep Klein

And the winner is....

Kara the Killer!!! (But in the Oreo game, everyone's a winner cuz hey, free Oreo!)
Here is our older kid winner, Thomas. Except he won in silence, and I had to be told later that he'd actually won like 10 minutes ago (yeah, it took about that long to get a winner) but that he hadn't said anything. So good job Thomas!
Zoe was our eventual winner, which cracked me up because she spent the whole time using her hands, until the very last try, and then she won!

Nathan trying to flip it over his nose.
Jessica was actually really great at getting it down her face, but couldn't get her tongue out in time to catch the cookie.
Hayden just missed it!

And then it was time for the SMASH CAKE!!!

This is all for me!?
She started slowly...
...but she eventually got the hang of it.

Lily thought watching Goo devour her cake was great!

I couldn't possibly eat another bite...
...but she enjoyed sucking on those chocolate fingers.
Party's over, man!
Tub time!
All clean, and eating some cheese to balance out all that cake.
Goo got a Radio Flyer wagon from Grandma Lala and Grandpa Steve, which was perfect for storing the gifts during the party!
Ever the helper, Mylea held Goo so that I could take pictures of her opening gifts.
Grace with her new cd entitled "Goo Tunes" :)
She wanted to play with her new laptop!
Grace was entranced by baby Lydia. Whenever she came near, Grace would go crazy and smile and wave her arms and grunt, and want to grab her. It was pretty sweet.

All in all it was a very fun party, and I'm thankful for all the friends and family who came to celebrate Grace's first year. We are so blessed to have you all in our life!