Saturday, April 28, 2012

A Dino-Mite 1st Birthday - Nijelosaurus Turns ONE!

It's amazing how fast a year goes by! Wow! I feel like I was just bringing my son, Nijel, home from the hospital and now he's ONE. He's walking (not too well, but walking nonetheless), talking, and full of awesome personality. I just love him to pieces and definitely wanted his first birthday to be (almost) as special as him. ;)
So this year, we decided to have a DINO-MITE 1st birthday party for our little man.
His birthday banner.
Here's the birthday boy!

Yawn. Being one is so exhausting!

I found his baby leg warmers and his dinosaur tie/suspenders onesie on Etsy, of course! Etsy is such a great place to find adorable handmade items!

On to the party details!
It got hot today, in the mid-80s, and for April that's kind of crazy. But we're in Indiana so what should I expect, right? At least the heat was accompanied by crazy, gusty, good-luck-keeping-those-table-cloths-down, and you-can-forget-about-those-paper-plates, WIND!
And while it made keeping the decorations secure a definite challenge,
 I was certainly glad to have it.

I spent a bit of time, more than I'd care to admit, on making these food labels.
I used my cricut, which greatly cut down the time, and this  FREE dinosaur template to make the adorable dinos to "hold" the food labels.
All I did was nix the heart that was in the original dinosaur template
and in its place I used hadmade labels.




Chips- Dinosaur Scales (Pictured)
Frito Scoops- Dinosaur Claws
Devilled Eggs- Devilled Dino Eggs (Pictured)
Hotdogs- Pterodactyl Dogs
Hamburgers-Stegosauraus Burgers
Veggies and Dip- Herbivore Valley (Pictured)
Dirt Pudding with Gummy Worms - Dinosaur Dig (Pictured)

Here's his cake! Complete with a volcano, vines, & lots of colorful dinosaurs!

 That's one brave pterodactyl sitting on top of that volcano! ;)

And, I can't blog a first birthday without a few icing covered baby shots, right?
Hey, this is pretty good!


I'm "this" many!

 Mmmm, icing!

 My son is NOT shy about eating. He loves food!

Also, keeping with the theme, I placed these adorable dinosaur masks out on the tables for the guests to wear!
Here's the birthday boy's big sister, Lillie, modeling her mask a wee bit too close to her brother's sticky, bright red, icing covered "claws". Rawr.

We are just SO blessed with wonderful friends and family who helped make Nijel's big day one to remember. We had a great day and having special people there to share it with made it even more DINO-MITE!

A note to my son:
Nijel, you are a blessing and a joy. I have enjoyed watching you learn and grow into a truly awesome little boy. I pray that you always know how much you are loved and how special you are!
Happy birthday, big boy! And many, many more!

Love Always,
Momma (Ashlie)