Henry's 1st birthday party!

A few months ago, when we began planning little man's birthday party, we considered staying in Houston to party with friends.  Think about pictures of your first birthday--you were probably surrounded by your extended family, yes?  Well we wanted the same for our little man.

What a whirlwind of a weekend!

We left Thursday afternoon and made the 8 hour drive to Tulsa, making it just before midnight.  Luckily, Henry managed to sleep pretty soundly the last few hours in the car.  Friday we spend the day with various members of our family, and even managed to sneak in a lunch at Charleston's--the place where JP and I met.  Saturday was busy getting ready for the party.  We had decorations and balloons to buy, cupcakes to pick up.  Everyone came over around 4, and we started off with cupcakes.

Henry didn't quite know what to think about the cupcakes.  He started with a bite of icing, and while I'm sure he liked the taste, he wasn't crazy about the icing on his fingers.

We moved on to the vanilla cake, which he had a few bites of before deciding he really wasn't interested.  Granted, there were about 20 people watching every bite and giggling over every facial expression, so I'm sure he was a little bit intimidated.

We gave him a few pieces of chocolate cake, and he seemed to like it better.

After cake, we went for a swim, Henry's favorite pastime these days.  Somehow we managed to not capture this part of the party on film.

After swimming, we opened presents.  What a lucky boy!  Henry scored pretty big this year!  It was hard to keep his attention between presents, because he wanted to play with each toy as he opened them.  He did a great job opening presents that were in bags, but hasn't quite mastered the art of ripping wrapping paper yet. 

By far his favorite present was a bouncy ball from his Gramma and Grampa.  

It's the simple things, really.

The next day, we got up early and hit the road for the 8 hour drive back to Houston.

We arrived home very tired, but so glad that we were able to celebrate Henry's first birthday surrounded by so many loved ones.

How about some cake in your eyebrows, Gramma?

 Thanks everyone for helping to make Henry's day so special!