A World of Color

Dalton turned 1 on Friday and we decided to celebrate with color!

We went down to the park and set up a BBQ-Garden Party.

The park is right next to our garden, so it made a perfect backdrop :)

We started with little water bottles and added "Hawaiian Punch Singles" to them.

A box of Hawaiian Punch singles is only $1 and each little packet worked for 3-4 water bottles.  It was a super-cute and cheap way to add a little more color.

Plus, it was a huge hit with the kids!

They loved their colored juices.

(Plus a bonus for moms...the flavors are sugar free!)

We barbequed hot dogs 

(which I don't even like, but it had to be affordable, and my kids love them).

I made home made salsa from the garden, a veggie tray (with veggies from the garden), and rainbow jello cups with home made whipped cream and sprinkles.

They turned out so cute, but oh wow, were they a long process to make!

If you ever decide to try them out, start in the morning...

I made monster cupcakes from "What's New Cupcake?"

It's one of my favorite cupcake books because the designs are surprisingly easy and don't involve any fancy equipment.  Just grocery store candy, frosting, cupcakes, and ziplock bags.  A little time-consuming, but easy :)

Me and my cute baby who's 1 now...

He wasn't quite sure what to make of the candle in the cake.

I've seen him tear into a cupcake before, so I thought he would go nuts over the monster cupcake, but he didn't really care.  There was too much going on and too many people watching.  He wasn't interested at all.

This is the messiest it got:

And...his birthday hat!

A while back, I won a "Charlie Bug Hat Pattern" from Blue Cricket Designs.

Of course, it's meant to be made with fabric and ribbon and such, but I had about 5 mintues to spare before I had to leave for the park, so I used the pattern to make one out of cardstock.  I just placed her pattern over the cardstock and cut both of them out at the same time.  Then I hot glued it all together.  Done in under 5 minutes.  It's not as cute as the fabric one, but not bad for a last minute project :)

(Below is attempt #2 with the birthday cupcake...still no success)

Birthday Bloopers:

-Saxon was riding his bike all over the park.  At one point, my Grandpa asked Saxon to stop next to Dalton so he could get a picture.  Saxon did, but lost his balance and fell over on top of Dalton and the birthday cake.  He smashed the cupcake and got covered in blue monster frosting.  We had to laugh.  What else can you do.  Dalton got another cupcake (which is still didn't want) and we tried to make Saxon feel better (he was embarrassed).

-Dalton started getting fussy half-way through the party and kind of clingy.  So, I was holding him and chatting with my cousin, when he started throwing up all over me.  It was all over me, and him, and in my hair, etc.  Luckily we live close so I could run home and clean us both up.  He must have just eaten something that disagreed with him because after that, he was fine.  Poor guy...

(Linked this idea up to Tatertots and Jello)