Clay's First Birthday Party

Clay's first birthday party was wonderfully perfect!  Our special guy woke up from his nap just before party time and was super happy to have both sets of grand parents, Aunt Rachel, Uncle David, Cousin Joseph, Cousin Lauren, his neighborhood pals, his play group buds, and all of the our wonderful adult friends / pseudo aunts and uncles there to celebrate his day!


We had great weather, a wonderful spread of Chick-fil-a nuggets, cheese and crackers, strawberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, a veggie platter, milk, apple juice, berry water, sangria, and beer.  Inside we had a mellow play list and a slide show of Clay's first year running.  Outside we had the ball pit, the jungle gym, a bubble machine, and the tree swing.  It was absolutely a blast and better than I could have imagined!

Clay's first look at the ball pit when he first woke up for the morning (we pulled it into the kitchen so that he would have something to do / be contained while we finished getting ready for the party).

Clay's first look and first slide down the slide on his jungle gym.

This is actually a picture from the week before his birthday; we decided to make it a tradition to give back in a meaningful way around Clay's birthday.  We want him to appreciate the gift of giving to others, as well as appreciate the blessings in his life during a time of a year when a large amount of attention is placed on him and receiving fun presents.  We made 5 dozen turkey and cheese sandwiches and took them along with the oranges up to our church so that they could be served at the local homeless shelter.

The wonderful birthday boy!

Cousin Joseph

Cousin Lauren

The Musgraves

Sweet Luna

Mr. Alex (his talented Mama graciously took most of the pictures - super talented lady!)

Megs, Mel, Ashley, Rachel, Lindsey, Kelly, and Mama

Precious little Ella Grace

Jack and his Mama, Heather

Clay's buddy from before birth, Claire

Lindsay, Bri, and baby Cash

Gabe and Dave

Bri (a tired Clay) and Dave - even though little man was tired, I assure  you that he LOVED being in Bri's arms - he has a crush on that lady for sure!

Poppa and Clay

Granny and Clay

Yaya and Clay

Grand Bop, Poppa, and Clay

Some of the dudes

Clay just before he got his hands on his smash cake

Clay's smash cake; Yaya added the fun decorations

Mommy and Daddy trying to light the candle in the wind

Joseph and Lauren helped blow out the candle

And little man went straight for the cake... he loved it!

He got striped down after cake

Clay had a quick bath in the sink before rejoining he party

Little Mama, Lauren, was there to help; Clay LOVES cousin Lauren

It's been an amazing first year!  When we found out that we were going to have a baby, we knew that we were the luckiest people on the planet.  Then we met our little guy and held him in our arms and realized how truly blessed we were.  Over the next year were fortunate enough to be parents to the most amazing creature with the sweetest disposition and we were able to share it with our sweet family, our incredible long time friends, and made wonderful new friends along the way.  Knowing that all those people cared about our family and more specifically knowing that all those people loved Clay and wanted to be apart of his life for his first year and for the years to come truly shows that we are blessed beyond measure and that God is good!  Thanks to all of you for following our blog and in doing so following this wonderful journey!