1st Birthday Party-Recap

As I'm preparing for my son Will's 2nd birthday party, I thought I'd post pictures from his 1st birthday party last March. It's so hard to believe that another year has already passed. I can't believe that Will is already 2 years old. Where did time go?

For his 1st birthday last year, I went with a train-theme. Will's entire nursery is done in vintage trains from when my grandfather, Poppy, worked on the railroad.

(My Poppy and my husband's Papaw both worked on the railroad together! How crazy is that?In fact, when Josh and I first started dating in '95, Papaw asked me if my grandfather worked for the railroad. We soon realized that my Poppy had trained Josh's Papaw when he first started at the railroad.) Needless to say, Josh and I have a huge affinity for trains since that's how our grandfathers first met.

It was only fitting that Will's first birthday be all about trains.

Here are some pictures:

Here is the invitation (I cropped it to delete our personal info like address and phone #)

For his birthday cake, I made a smash cake and topped it with an individual train car cake. My Nana bought me the Pottery Barn train cake pan, so I made a ton of individual train cars. I had individual bags of various colors of frostings, along with all kinds of decorations (non pareils, sprinkles, sweet tarts, and jelly beans) to decorate the train cars. Each child decorated his or her own train car and then could eat it!

Isn't this the sweetest pose! Of course, I had him in a train-smocked outfit. I just love his hand on his cheek:) Behind him are all the decorations for the train cars.

Will getting a kiss from his Nana (his great-grandmother).

I used licorice to make the train tracks and covered a butcher block in foil to hold the track and the train cars.

Everyone was given a box lunch. I made labels for the outside with a picture of a train and the words: Alexander Station Box Lunch.

For the adults, I had chicken tenders, homemade pasta salad, chips, a pickle and a drink.

For the kids, I had a Smucker's UnCrustable sandwich, chips and a juice box.

Lillie Claire, my little girl, blowing a pinwheel before the party.

All the children's boxes are ready to go for their arrival at the Alexander Station.

Will and I with his smash cake.

Will totally into his 1st birthday cake!

I love this picture of our friend, Lucy. Each child was given a party favor bag with either train conductor hats (from Oriental Trading) or train whistles. We had "Fishing for Favors" with my husband behind a blue panel. I attached a magnet to the end of a fishing pole and kids could fish for their favor. As the fishing pole was dropped, my husband attached it to a favor bag.

-Now time to get ready for Will's 2nd birthday party. I can't wait!

Happy Monday,

Steph