Flashback: Meg's 1st Birthday!

Sam got his photos to me a week or so ago, and I thought Meg's 13-months birthday (if you will) was the perfect time to flashback to her party and share the pictures I'd promised.

We opted for a monkey theme in honor of Meg's favorite stuffed animal, her monkey. I made the invites on a whim, but I think they turned out pretty cute. Marianne said she was impressed, as she was helping assemble the cards, so that's something.

The party was a small affair - just local family, and mostly just the younger set till the end of the party when Andrew and Sherri got home from a weekend retreat. I still wanted it to be fun for the kids who were there, though - my girls and William and Henry. I came across this Curious George game at Target a couple weeks before the party, so picked it up for entertainment. Then, to mix it up, I put together a little scavenger hunt to lead the kids to the game. It was a fun idea that I definitely plan to reuse at future parties. I took objects that were obviously from specific rooms (but just to be sure they'd standout, I put brightly colored tags on them with monkey stickers, so the kids would know which object was the next clue). Then I mixed them up in odd rooms of the house, leading the kids on a crazy hunt all over. So, for instance, when they saw the diaper, then knew to go to Meg's room. In Meg's room they found a whisk, so knew to head for the kitchen, and so on till they eventually found the game. It was sort of a weak ending to the game - candy would have been more exciting! - but the kids had fun and wanted to re-hide all the clues and play again later. After games, we ate, and had cake and opened gifts. Typical, but a great time. Now, on to the pictures!
Meg, watching the game playing excitement from the comfort of her new chair. Thanks, Grammy and Papa!
Henry came dressed in costume for the party. He was sort of the party mascot, though Meg couldn't really catch him to snuggle him the way she does her own monkey.
Meg enjoyed reading a book with Uncle Sam while the big kids played (and Mom worked on lunch). She had a great time being passed from aunt to uncle to aunt throughout the party.
Henry and Meg enjoying some pre-lunch snacks. There were peanut-butter-banana-crackers for appetizers, though Meg didn't have any of those. We saved her first peanut butter taste for something worthier (and till after she was officially one, because if you have to take your kid to the hospital for a pb reaction, you want to look like you were at least sort of following the guidelines).
The bigger kids LOVED the new game. It helped that it had animal masks as props for certain tasks.
Lunch time! We had a low key meal of corn dogs and veggies. I tried out a new punch recipe with pureed bananas. It was very tasty, but could have used a slug of coconut rum to really round out the flavor.
The cake was chocolate chip banana with chocolate frosting. It was a little overly dense, but tasty. I made this monkey cake just for Meg, and had another cake for the rest of us. Meg is fan of cake, so she took pretty quickly to munching this one, but as you can see, the squashing and smearing of frosting is way more fun than actually consuming cake.



Meg was pretty wiped out by the end of the cake event, especially since it was already past her nap time. But we cleaned her up and moved her back to her cushy chair for some forced gift opening.
She really was not interested much in the gifts. Luckily, she had two older sisters there to ooh and aah over the presents for her.
This picture is from the end of the party. It made me laugh because it shows the size of Meg's new chair. My mom accidentally ordered the size up from the ones the other girls have, and my running joke now is that Meg has her first piece of dorm furniture ready to go! It's a very comfy chair. And handy for the whole family!

Happy birthday, one last time, Meg! I love you and I can't believe how fast you're growing up.