The Louis Family

We celebrated Simon's 1st Birthday a tad bit early on December 1st.

Reasoning for the early date- Let's face it, no one has a free weekend in December... might as well do it early.

And that morning we hosted a Sip and See for Baby Cason, so the McAdams were in town... and since our sweet friends were already together that day, we figured just go ahead and fill up the whole day with celebration.

Had the party at a park... we've outgrown our cozy home.

It was good. A bit crazy, but oh so good.

I initially didn't want to go with a theme, but then found this precious polar bear pic and went with it.

Liz lightened my load in a major way by offering to do Simon's cake.

I could have turned her down, but then Simon wouldn't have had this adorable cake :)

What are friends for anyway ?? :)

I mean, really!?!?!

Thank you, Roomie!!

The "dessert table" missing the giant bags of Swedish fish and a pan of brownies.

We placed Simon's timeline out for 2 seconds to take the pictures.... it was quite windy.

Simon's sad Happy Birthday banner... I wasn't going to hang it because of the wind, but my sweet friends did it for me.

You know how most parties have that one really cute table... well this was ours. ha.

About 15 WalMart bags full of whatever we needed... food, bubbles, polar bear coloring sheets (Henry said, "But polar bears are white?!"), flashlights, plates, party favors, etc.... Good thing our friends know how to make themselves at home.

I tried to set out the party favors, but they kept getting blown over.

Contained a polar bear hand puppet and half of a sticker sheet. ha. Half of my sticker order got cancelled.

Such a neat playground.

My kids call it the Tree House park.

It was unseasonably warm, which was great since I took a big risk having a party at a park in December... but there were a TON of people there, too, enjoying the good weather.

The pavilion.

The birthday boy had a great time playing on the playground.

Walking around.

Climbing the stairs and going down the slide in my lap.

Eating woodchips...

Playing with strangers

MG taking a rest with Meagan, Kristen, and Connor

Amy, Cason, Kristen, and Connor

Liz and the Birthday Boy

Miss Casey took Simon on a nature walk while we were getting dinner set out...

... Simon found lots of sticks appetizers.

So thankful for our hotdog chefs.

Charlie

Audrey, MG, Alice, and Ava

Hot Dogs and Chili.... thought the chili was a great idea (thanks MP) for the cold weather that didn't happen.
Got plenty in the freezer... for when it actually gets cold.
Oh, and have a million polar bear Cokes left over.

Scarfed down his dog and fruit. Thank goodness for OxiClean.

Simon's birthday bud, Hudson.

Mags

Ava, ready for our polar bear hunt.

We hid the bear pinata on one of the park's trails.

Don't worry. Brinley's dad is an ophthalmologist.

Luke

Margaret Gray wanted me to hold her... she was a little nervous. But later told us "I'm not happy it wasn't a real polar bear".

Jackson spied it 1st.

Audrey

Simon was a bit uncertain at first. Then warmed up "said" "doggie".

Next, birthday cake :)

The kid was a champion cake eater

Wish we had gotten a picture right before PawPaw cleaned him up... he had cake ALL OVER his face and a tad bit in his eyes.

Pinata time

Love Charlie in the background.

He wasn't the only one a bit scared of Tom's strength :)

Both Simon and Hudson were brought to tears.

Simon loved all of his gifts.
Thank you friends and family for loving on our dear little guy!
You are all such a blessing to us!

It was a super fun party!

As Meagan said it, "I think Simon had the best time of all!"

We gathered at Tom's Aunt and Uncle's in Dallas on Thanksgiving.

It was a great day.

We were pumped to have the Whitesides with us!

Cousin couch

To say Simon thoroughly enjoyed his Thanksgiving feast would be an understatement... I kept on having to go back for more!

Precious Gwyneth

Shout out to Sister Schubert

I've decided that Thanksgiving is Henry's worst food nightmare. He's always had an aversion to mashed potatoes, and when I thought about it, most of the food at Thanksgiving is the consistency of mush... thus causing many gags :)