Brayden's Birthday Party

Brayden's birthday party was a success! There was a grand total of 41 people there. Think this kid is loved? He had a blast, and got spoiled. We really appreciate everyone that came out to show their love to our little Brayden. He hasn't stopped talking about it all day!

The theme was "Alphabet". My friend Arianne came over and helped me make letters out of white chocolate that we decorated them with sprinkles. This is what I used for the table decoration as well as the cupcakes. 

It is tradition in my family that we wake up on the morning of our birthday to a huge poster that Mom has made for us. This was the most exciting part of our birthday. I think I can say that we all looked forward to the poster more than we looked forward to our present. Mom has never missed a birthday. And every single poster has been different. She gets really creative and spend hours on them. It isn't a complete birthday without a birthday poster. Since my sister was coming down to visit, I asked my mom if she would mind making a poster for Brayden. She agreed, and I'm so glad she did! It was awesome. I should have gotten a close up of all the detailing around the edges but she definitely put in some time on this thing. Thanks Mom! He loved it :) but I'm pretty sure I loved it even more :)

When I was done making the letters with the white chocolate, I let Brayden use up the rest of the white chocolate and "color" on wax paper. He had way too much fun doing this...and even more fun eating it off of the wax paper! Look at that look of concentration... haha, I love it.

Asher had a mohawk for the party and this was the best picture I could get of it. Lame! He is one active kid that really doesn't like getting his picture taken. But I thought the do was too cute to not post! I told Sean I'm seriously considering cutting it into a hawk. For some reason I don't think it would be as cute as this...  :)

Natalie and I were having way too much with the chocolate. So we decided to dip pretzels...

And make cake and oreo balls. We went through 2 pounds of white chocolate and 2 pounds of milk chocolate this week. Gross, but oh so good!

The announcement. We got rained out so we ended up having the party at Sean's parent's house instead. It still turned out great though! (Thanks Claire for the fabulous design of the invite!)

This is the spread of the food. Lorraine made her famous homemade bagels for the party which were awesome! Then we had a fruit platter, veggie platters, chocolate covered strawberries and pretzels, and chips. I don't think anyone left hungry!

The Birthday boy, eating his food.

We played a game called "Don't Eat Pete!" In the real version, there is a face in each of the nine squares. It is only manila folder size, and you use an M&M or something. I altered this version to be more "Alphabet Party" friendly. We used alphabet crackers and put one on each space. One kid left the room while we all picked which square was "it" or "Pete." We called the kid back into the room and they got to eat a cookie off of each square, trying to avoid "Pete". If they picked Pete, we all yelled "Don't Eat Pete!" You try to get as many cookies as possible before getting yelled at. The game lasted for about 10 minutes before the kids were bored with it, but it was definitely worth it! They had a lot of fun.

My beautiful sister and I!

The kids playing "Don't Eat Pete!"

Opening presents (THANK YOU!)

More grub

B blowing out his balloon candles that he picked. The kids helped, but he didn't seem to mind! I've never seen a kid blow out candles with as much gusto. Go Brayden!

The party favors. Sidewalk Chalk!

All in all, it was a fantastic party. I heard that people had a lot of fun so I'll chalk it up as a success. Not bad for my first kid birthday party, huh? I'd do it again in a heart beat. It was a blast. And as I mentioned earlier, Brayden hasn't stopped talking about it!

Thanks Everyone!