Eli's First Birthday (Party)!

So Eli turned 5! Time flies. I say that quite often, but I think it's starting to speed up even faster. It seems like we were just celebrating the 4th of July. Sometimes, while I'm outside with the kids watching them play, I long for those summer days to be back. But I really enjoy fall and school in session too.

Eli had his first "friend" birthday party. It was a camping themed party. He even got to camp out at Grandpa Beutler's the night before with all the boy cousins, his brothers and his dad. Since he'd miss his birthday morning at home, we wrapped his door the day before so he wouldn't miss out on jumping through the streamers which has been a fun tradition on birthday mornings at our house. This is Eli's most common picture face...

He had a campfire themed cake. I made the cake and frosting from scratch from a recipe titled "the best chocolate cake ever!" and it lived up to it's title. I ate too much of it!

We had all kinds of camp related activities at the party. I always look forward to throwing the party, and then realize why we don't do parties for every birthday. It's a TON of work and a lot of little crazy people hyped up on birthday fumes and sugar! It's nuts. There's got to be an easier way. But Eli was so excited for his first birthday party (ever) that he could hardly sleep 2 nights before the party started! It was a bigger deal than Christmas. I love seeing that excitement. They only get to be a kid once, that's why I do it. 

 The decorations:

We made pet rocks:

We had a "campfire" and a Grandpa Beutler played the harmonica for us:

We had a scavenger hunt for trinkets like flashlights, magnifying glasses, compasses, rocks, feathers, plastic bugs, etc...

Hot dog lunch:

Eli was showered with gifts and hugged everyone who came (thank you notes to come, we're still working on those): 

We got him a fireman suit with all the trimmings and boots to match...which he rarely takes off. He  looks good as a fireman! 

 Grandma/pa Gray got him a lego set which he said was "awesome!" It was a fire rescue team and it has been almost everywhere with him (even to the store and the bathtub).

We enjoyed singing happy birthday to our sweet boy! I hope he felt special and loved. We all tried our best to make it a wonderful day for him. And then his mom crashed for the afternoon and hibernated like a bear and gave up on cleaning or cooking for the rest of the day. Parties poop her out! But, he doesn't get another one until he turns 8!

And p.s. Thank you Great- Grandpa Schenk and Denise for always sending these kids a birthday card!