first birthday party

i apologize for not getting these pictures up sooner, however, of all the days for my camera to die, it did so on talan's first birthday. fortunately, we have an entire family that is as snap happy as i am so we had about 4 cameras taking pictures for me all evening.
thank you to all of you photographers that came out for the party and took hundreds of pictures for me. i couldn't have done a better job myself.

after much debating on whether to have talan's party on the saturday after his birthday or on his actual birthday, i gave into my neurotic ways and had it on his actual birthday. i couldn't possibly imagine him eating his cake NOT on his actual birthday.
because of his love of jumping we had a jumping themed party. we decorated with 1st birthday goods as well as bunnies, frogs, kangaroos, grasshoppers, and trampolines. the main cake was a trampoline....i did the best i could but this may be the cake we look back on and laugh at how bad it was...we also had mini bunny cakes and frog cupcakes. i also made a mini version of the trampoline cake, minus all of the black frosting, for talan. the dessert table also had the sugar cookies and chocolate suckers in the shapes of frogs, bunnies, kangaroos and grasshoppers that i had made.
since we decided to make it so inconvenient on everyone by having the party on a wednesday, we decided to feed them all dinner. we ordered bbq broasted chicken, chicken tenders, broasted potatoes and rolls from chicken king...THE ONLY place to get chicken. we also had chips, potato salad and cole slaw.
those lucky enough to participate in this magnificent feast consisted of mom and dad, jenn and rainah, jessica, melanie, ashton and lorelei howard, tina taylor, and caroline skiver. daniel skiver also stopped by around 8 o'clock when he got done with work.
it appeared everyone enjoyed the meal....especially dave who has eaten it for lunch AND dinner for the past 4 DAYS. that's not even a joke. even hayden ate 1 entire chicken tender. talan sipped on his bottle but also enjoyed some chicken tenders, broasted potatoes and rolls.
when dinner was done we all gathered around the mini trampoline where all of talan's presents had piled up. dave took talan and helped him open the presents, with some help of course, from hayden. considering he doesn't like to sit still for more than a second, he did a really good job sitting on dave's lap the whole time. he got a little bored when clothes were being opened but as soon as he opened a toy that made noise he'd sit there quite content.
some of the MANY gifts he received were: a leap frog fridge dj (which hayden has played with FAR more then talan has), a baby mp3 player (hayden got one for his birthday, why not talan?!), a jumping zebra, a giant stuffed dog blanket, books, clothes, a farm animal truck, a puzzle, a lawn mower, a ball popper, and quite a bit more. everyone was so generous and we thank you for all of the great gifts!
after the presents were all opened, the adults started trying to take the toys out of the packaging (if you've ever done this, you know this process can take several hours) and putting them together. the kids all started playing with those toys that didn't need to be put together...the favorite being the ball popper that all the kids were playing with at one point. good thing talan doesn't take after his brother, and he doesn't mind sharing....for now at least.
after we let the kids play for a bit it was cake time. we sat talan in his highchair and the paparazzi gathered 'round to take pictures. hayden helped by blowing the candle out and then talan stuck a finger into the frosting. as soon as he got his first taste of the sugar he couldn't shovel it in fast enough. when he did eventually stop we pulled him carefully out and ran him upstairs to get him changed and cleaned up so that we could eat our cake.
when we brought him back downstairs we put him in his jumper where he happily jumped for the rest of the evening.
when everyone headed home we sent them with a big bag of goodies. the kids got a wind up bunny, a jump rope, a stuffed frog, a bouncy ball with a frog inside, jumping grasshoppers, and they all got to take home one of the ball hoppers that you jump on. the adults got a bag with cookies, chocolate suckers and a tin with talan's picture on it and inside some "jumping beans." i tried desperately to find some real mexican jumping beans, but unfortunately they are not in season until july or august. so we had to make do with the little pill looking jumping beans that my dad remembered growing up with.
even though it was about 9 o'clock by the time we were putting t-money to bed, he was still in a great mood. he seemed to really enjoy the whole party. the food, the presents, being the center of attention, and of course...the cake!
here are just a few of literally the 400 pictures i gathered from dad and jessica alone! and people say the second kid hardly has any pictures taken of them. HA....not my kids.


all ready for a party:

the birthday throne:

mmm, chicken king:
the dessert tables:


frog cupcakes:
talan's cake:
trampoline cake:
the birfday boy:
hayden:
teens, jessica and jenn discussing how awesome my parties are:
johnny cash folsom prison stripes:


ain't that the truth:
the big stuffed dog blanket:
he LOVED his winnie the pooh bear from aunt ruth and uncle jeff:
are we done yet?!:
sitting back and checking out the loot:
whoever heard of a bouncing zebra? apparently fisher price:
one of the favorite toys of the evening voted on by all children ages 1-5:

what is this you're giving me?!:
trying it out:
are you sure i'm allowed to be doing this?:
ok then:





the damage done:
trying to lick the last bit off before being cleaned up:
always moving: