Callan's first birthday party

Yesterday was beautiful.  It was a picture perfect Fall day.  Great day for a party.

We took advantage of the gorgeous weather and snapped a few photos in the yard of our almost 1 year old!

he loved climbing in and out of the flower beds

Callan took a few spins around the driveway in his new John Deere wagon from his (CA) grandma and grandpa.
He loved every second.

 

We had a lovely evening, celebrating Callan's first birthday with new friends and Travis' parents.  We started with cheese and crackers, then moved on to pulled pork, roasted broccoli and cauliflower, and autumn chopped salad.  It was quite tasty!
And the 9+ lb pork butt that Travis picked up gave us lots of leftovers!

I went a little overboard on dessert.  Thankfully, Travis took all that was left over to work this morning.  Except for the Rollo pretzel bites.  Those, I was not willing to share.  When I saw them on Pinterest, I knew I needed an excuse to make them - Callan's party was the perfect excuse.  Pretzels, Rollos, and pecans; in the words of Ina Garten, "how bad can that be?!"

Rolo pretzel bites

I also made cinnamon roll cupcakes, and a few banana cupcakes from leftover batter from Callan's cake, as well as chocolate chip cookies, ginger snaps, and maple cream cookies.  Sugar overload.

cinnamon roll cupcakes

After dinner, we opened presents.  Callan is one spoiled little boy!  (And this picture was taken before our guests showed up with gifts!)  We are so blessed by all the love that has been shown for our sweet boy.  Not just with gifts, but with prayers since he was just a twinkle in God's eye.  And for that, we are most grateful.

Callan was only mildly interested in opening his gifts - but he sure was all about the toys once all that paper was torn off. 

lots of goodies from friends, Josh and Lesley

a winter coat from great-grandpa Chuck

check from great-grandma (ca)

from Uncle Rich, Aunt Karin, and cousin Erin

Weebles from our new friends, Evan, Chelsey, and sweet, little Rylee

fun new activity from gma and gpa

instrument set from us

The highlight of my night was the idea of Callan destroying his "smash cake" - my little banana flavored labor of love.

However...

That excitement died quickly as this was as close as Callan wanted to get to his cake.  He wanted nothing to do with eating, tasting, or getting frosting on his teeny fingers.  I totally sulked for about 10 minutes.  I took a giant bite out of his cake just to make myself feel better...somebody had to.

We had a wonderful time - great friends, good food, and one of the best reasons to celebrate that I could ever imagine.  In a perfect world, ALL of our family and friends would have been at our house last night, but we know how much Callan is loved and prayed for by each one of them, and that is the greatest gift we could ever ask for for our little miracle (although they were dearly missed!!).

Tomorrow our sweet boy turns 1.

Happy birthday, to the littlest love of my life.