Friday, January 8, 2010

The Lewallen Christmas Adventure Part 3....Ryne's First Birthday Party

And the Adventure continues...

We got up early Sunday morning and left Spiro headed to North Little Rock.
Had time to pit stop for church in Russellville and then make it to the big party for this guy:


When we arrived, this is what we found.....

C.G. was busy making the birthday cake.
I was very surprised to see this happening because she had ordered the cake a while back and everything was supposed to be taken care of for the cake. So of course I asked what in the world she was doing. Well, it turns out that the place where she ordered the cake had forgotten about it and tried to just throw something together last minute and it wasn't at all what she had ordered. As soon as I said that it would have been okay and she shouldn't have worried about it and thought she had to make a cake herself, my kid sister chimed in to let me know just how bad the first cake was and just how sad I would have been had they showed up with it for Ryne's first birthday party. I did see pictures later and they were right....it was pretty sad. Once again, C.G. saved the day!!! And she made a fabulous cake.

And we also found Monk Monk busy getting all the farm decorations set up for the party.
Grandaddy was busy, too. He was gone to target to get spoons for the ice cream. I can't even tell you how impossible it would have been to have Ryne's birthday party like we did if it hadn't been for C.G., Grandaddy, and Monk Monk.
See what we did was plan the party at Monk's place in North Little Rock because it was a central location for both of our families to be able to come. Plus it allowed us to be able to invite lots of our friends that we rarely get to see when we make trips back south. It was a very busy and exciting day. Thanks for making it happen Mom, Dad and Monk!!!

So here was the final result of C.G.'s first cake creating endeavor:

I thought she did a great job!

And Ryne's cake:

An animal of his very own to eat!

And the one thing that C.G. ordered that actually turned out okay:

Cupcakes for the little ones!

Now we were ready for the party to get started...

It was time for everyone to grab their party hats and celebrate.


Kade was a bit confused and put on his new 3-d shark glasses instead. Silly boy!


Oh, he did finally find his party hat and was ready to party. Here he had Uncle B playing some balloon game with him.

Grandaddy found a party hat to wear...

And Ryne seemed to really like it...

So we gave him one of his own!


And then we tried to get a family picture before Ryne covered himself with cake.
Remember how my boys struggle to take group pictures? Nothing new on this day.

Ryne just wanted us to bring on the cake...

And then he wanted to grab the flaming #1 that was on top of his cake.
Guess we should have practiced blowing before we got to this day.

And then Ryne's crazy mom and dad left an entire cake on his highchair.

You can tell that he wasn't quite sure what to think about this situation.
But once we convinced him that we did that on purpose and it was okay for him to eat his cake then things moved right along....

One bite from the spoon, three bites from the hand and pretty soon that sweet little cake was demolished!

And this is one sugar-filled happy little boy who really enjoyed his very own 1st birthday cake!

Other than birthday cake eating there was lots of visiting and playing and picture taking. One other thing that we did that I am really excited about was Ryne's time capsule. We also did this for Kade's first birthday. We requested that instead of people bringing gifts to the party that they write a letter to him to put in his time capsule that he will get to open on his thirteenth birthday. Letters with words of wisdom and encouragement, with hopes for his future and thoughts of how they feel about him. Some people put in some tokens of their love or mementos of the first year of his life. We gathered up some magazines and sports cards and a few other things that tell about his first year and put in there as well. We think it will be pretty neat for him to see those things and read the letters from people who love him when he turns 13.

The hard part of the party for Kyle and I was that there were so many people there that we didn't feel like we could visit with everyone as much as we wanted to. The best count we can get for the day was 52! Yes, that is 52 people that we wanted to spend time catching up with and it was just impossible. So we tried our best and want to say to all of you who took time out to come to Ryne's birthday party...THANK YOU!!!! What a blessing you all are in our lives and we love you very much.

Here's a look at some of the party-goers:

Cousin Taylor was sporting her party hat and I think at this point wondering why in the world we made her get up so early on a Sunday morning and go to a strange church and then drive all the way to North Little Rock just to see a bunch of strangers and eat some cake. Taylor is a trooper!


And yes, we did have a play area of the kiddos that was a life saver! That is a pretty serious tower that is being built there.


Ryne is meeting Ryan and Keith for the first time.


Rant Randa and Cameron pose for a photo.

Papa Keith, Jamie and Jacob enjoy some cake.

More play time.


It was good to have some nice couches to hang out on....lots of hanging out happened this day.

We got to meet baby Eli for the first time!

See the girl on the left....that's Molly! She is our friend that we met in Washington when she and her hubby moved there this past year. She is from Little Rock and when her husband was deployed she moved home. We have missed her so much here in Washington and so it was very exciting for us that she could come to Ryne's party and we got to see her. Tried to pack her up in our suitcase and bring her back with us....couldn't get that one past security! Thanks for coming Molly! Hurry back to Washington!

More hanging out...this time with the Wests.

And two of my most favorite girls got to do lots of hanging out with each other....wish I could've joined the corner chair party with you girls. Love my Kid Sister and my Bib! Aren't they so cute?

Aunt Red, Carly, and Carson made it to the party!!

And they even brought Uncle Doc with them!!!
We love our Carozzas...thanks you guys for making the trip. It was great to see you!

And there are obviously more and more pictures of people just hanging out and meeting Ryne and eating cake but I think you've probably gotten the idea by now.

It was a long, busy, happy day for our Ryne!
And what could make it even better?

Well, C.G. thought some ice cream might just do the trick!
I think he liked it a lot!

It was a very memorable day and one day I hope Ryne realizes just how cool his first birthday party really was. It was such a blessing to have all of our family and dearest friends be a part of that day. It was definitely a big adventure for such a little guy!

And the Lewallen Christmas Adventure didn't end here....stayed tuned for Part 4.

1 comment:

Amber said...

That cake is ADORABLE!!! I love it!!!

And big family get-togethers just make me happy!! Looks like a GREAT time!