Caiden's 1st Birthday

(Man - this entry is WAY overdue. I've been procrastinating in a very bad way!)

I am SO glad we decided to travel to Chicago for Caiden's 1st birthday! The party was a smashing success, and more importantly, it was so wonderful to have family and close friends gathered together to celebrate Caiden's big day!

The little guy did indeed command quite the turn out! Including B and me, Caiden had 27 guests! The guest list included grandma and all of the aunts, uncles and cousins from the Misura side (minus a couple of sig others and, of course, our AZ counterparts), great-grandparents (Everding), grandparents and aunt from the Duchek side, Godmother Summer and her parents, and our good friend Jim. We hosted the shindig at mom's house out in Huntley, and boy was the house PACKED! We decided to carry thru our theme from the WA party and outfitted the place with tons of streamers and balloons. Patrick and B did an excellent job decorating and the place looked very festive thanks to their efforts. In the meantime, Summer, mom and I were furiously busy in the kitchen prepping all the food food for the feast.

I need to take a moment here and give Summer a huge shout out and massive THANK YOU for all of the incredible work she put in. Not only did she make a special trip from MN to come and celebrate, she also arrived early to help us out. Lemme tell ya, we wasted no time putting her right to work. :) Without all of her help, there is no way we would've gotten everything ready. And she continued to help keep things on track throughout the entire party. So thank you Summer - we couldn't have done this without you!!!

I still can't believe how much *more* food we were able to put out compared to the WA party. I did some quick math and discovered that we were able to feed twice as many people twice as much food for almost half the cost of what we did in WA. Is that insane or what? *sigh* How I miss Woodman's. At this party, we served up homemade broccoli cheese soup (thanks mom!), Italian beef sandwiches, fruit and veggies, some yummy appetizers (thanks Rusti!), chocolate chip cookies, and of course home baked cupcakes. We also made the super yummy sherbet punch which went over very well!

Photo courtesy of Summer

Caiden was the perfect little gentleman during the party. He graciously allowed himself to be passed from person to person and didn't put up a fuss over anyone holding him. When it came time to sing Happy Birthday and blow out his candle, he could barely wait to dig right into that cupcake! My favorite moment of the whole party was when I took a few seconds to look around the room. Everyone in the room was focused on avidly watching our little guy indulge in his special treat. That one moment alone made the whole trip so worth it to me. I can't quite put it into words, but it meant so much to me to have everyone there celebrating this big day with us.



After Caiden demolished his cupcake, we got him cleaned up and moved on to opening up all of his fabulous gifts! This was one spoiled kid! There was no shortage of cool and exciting gifts. He got plenty of books, toys and clothes to last him quite a while! He had a lot of fun diving right into the present bags and participated pretty well in opening up his gifts.

Party at Large

Diving In!

Gift from Aunt Cathy & Uncle Brian

Loves the Shopping Cart from the Ptaks

Special Hugs for his Penguin from Rob

Once the presents were all opened, we announced the winner of our little contest that had been going on all afternoon. Whoever put forth the best guess for Caiden's weight won a prize! We had a pretty wide range of guesses from under 20lbs all the way to +30lbs! The winner of the game was Great-Grandma Ruth! She's had a lot of practice over the years. :) His actual weight was 20.3lbs, and her guess was 21lbs.

Great Grandma with her Photo Prize

All in all, I think we had a fantastic party. :) Special thanks to mom for letting us take over her home and also to Karla for loaning us some kitchen items and for helping out in a major way with the clean-up. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing everybody and appreciated everyone's effort to join us for this special occasion. We can't wait for more future celebrations together!!

For tons more photos - click here to go to the Shutterfly album.

I can now blog from my phone! Nifty!

Caiden's Pre-Birthday Party

We had already made plans to celebrate Caiden's 1st birthday with the family back in Chicago, but then that would mean Caiden wouldn't get to celebrate with all of his little friends here in WA! So we decided to put together a little party on March 28th (one week before his actual big day) so that he could have a little bit of extra fun. :)

Already a ladies' man - Stella and Caiden

We kept the theme simple, but fun - bold colors, streamers, and balloons - lots and lots of balloons. The effect was absolutely perfect and just what I had imagined! It was fun and festive without being overwhelming. We also put out a yummy spread that included fruit and veggie trays, ground beef wrapped in croissants, a baked egg and cheese casserole, stuffed cherry tomatoes, lemon cookies and of course, cupcakes. I always worry about having enough to eat, but as it turns out we made just the right amount and everyone loved the food.

Decor

Birthday Cupcakes

Caiden's guests included: Rob, Colin, Heather, Andrew, Sebastian, Ramie, Tim, Stella, Darcie, Jeremy, Gavin, Melanie, Ronan, Lisa, and Michi. The kids all loved playing with the balloons and Michi loved that he was the oldest kid there. Caiden got to debut his special birthday cake hat, and it wouldn't have been a party without the introduction of SUGAR! Yep - that's right. Caiden got his first taste of yummy dessert in the form of a cupcake. He wasted zero time diving right in and squishing the frosting thru his fingers and into his mouth. :D

Blowing out the candle

Look at him go!

Professional cupcake eater in the making

Thanks to all of our WA friends for helping make Caiden's first birthday so special!

For your viewing pleasure, two opportunities to view more photos:

• Pictures L & B took.
• Pictures Ramie & Tim took.

Growin' Up

Who is this little guy?!

Today was a big day! Caiden got his first haircut. We took him to a salon called Boozle B's in Plainfield, IL. They cater to kid's haircuts and for $19 you get the haircut, a toy, a picture, a certificate, an envelope for the hair and a helium balloon! Score!

I did find myself getting a little teary eyed over the event. It's another sign that the little guy is growing up! I can't get over how different he looks now! I swear the new haircut makes him look a little older already. It will be nice not having to constantly brush the hair out of his eyes, but I will miss running my fingers thru his little locks. I just hope the curls come back!

This Time Last Year

About this time last year, I was really starting to wonder when Caiden was gonna make his appearance! By now he was 4 days past his predicted due date and no longer a March baby! My mom was already here and waiting for her newest grandson to make his appearance. So we where whiling away the time with baking cookies and pies and watching movies. I remember being really uncomfortable when trying to sleep and wasn't getting a whole lot of good rest anymore. Maybe it was because my belly was so darn big!!

Me on 4.1.08

I also remember wanting to hurry up and get this done already cuz I wanted to meet this little guy, but at the same time wanting to wait a little longer cuz I just wasn't sure I was quite ready for this enormous change my life was about to take!

I can hardly believe it is a year later now. I can't believe we are celebrating Caiden's 1st bday in just a few days. My little guy is turning 1 already? Impossible!! But true. Where has the time gone? How do I slow things down?