These little guys, and Benji and Zachy's love for them,
were the inspiration for their animal-themed birthday party!
We invited all of our "party animal" friends using this template we bought from an Etsy seller:
Our invitations encouraged kids to come in animal costume, and let me tell you--every single one did! Even the 2 newborn babies we had! There were a bunny, a frog, 2 leopards, a giraffe, a penguin, 3 lions, a turtle, a kitty, and a fox sighted that day. Our buddies were the zoo keepers, keeping all the animals in line!
Poor Zachary got his first gastro stomach bug on the boys' actual birthday, and Benji had a cold, so they weren't as perky and happy as they usually are, but we had such a fun day. I spent hours planning and preparing the decor and food, and overall it was a really wonderful party. I just felt overwhelmed with gratitude and awe that we have two one year olds to celebrate. There were probably 30 people there... my family was in town and all of our close friends who could make it were there. So many people came around us to pray and believe for these little guys to come into our lives, so we wanted to invite everyone to celebrate with us this great milestone! Here are some pictures from the day... I delegate pics to my friend Courtney because my iPhone was too full! She did a great job.
I made these little burlap banners for their highchairs. The streamers in the background were meant to be a streamer wall but there was too much of a breeze and they wouldn't stay put! Thanks, Auntie, for hanging them up :)
You can't really see these signs, but I wrote out info about each boy... what he likes, what he can say and do, what makes him happy, and their stats. The middle poster are a bunch of pictures formed into a "1". Benji still loves to look at it during mealtimes. So cute.
John Wesley, the turtle!
The water table was a hit!
There were plenty of my funfetti and chocolate cupcakes for the crowd.
One of my favorite parts of the party was when my friend Shalyn, a music therapist, played a few animal songs for the kids! I wanted music time as an activity, and it was a hit!
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| Did I mention how fun it was to have Auntie there?? |
Now, onto the cake smash!
I made a healthy-ish cake for the boys. It was more like a whole wheat banana bread cake with very lightly sweetened cream cheese frosting. They honestly had never had anything sweet, so I didn't want to hit them with a whole cake full of sugar!
Benji's cake had fondant elephant ears on it, and Zachary's cake had fondant bear ears. The idea was to make them look like animal heads.
You can tell with these photos that Benji is a much cleaner eater than Zachary... which is the case during most mealtimes, as well.
That's a wrap!
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