Balls, balls, everywhere

This weekend was a whirlwind of rolling balls, flying balls, bouncing balls, and balls flying past babies' faces.  It was our ball-themed first birthday party for Greyson.  Let me start by saying that I had fully intended (for about 6 months) to have a Foot Book themed first birthday party.  The Foot Book is Greyson's number one, ultra special, fake laugh at the clown feet page, favorite book.  And I had decorations and games and some really cute stuff in mind. 

...And then one insomia-filled night about a week before his birthday party, at around 2am, I rolled over to Brandon and said, Do you think Grey will really appreciate all the Foot Book stuff for his party? And although he had been supporting and cheering on all my ideas up until that point, he very gently (though sleepily) said, babe, I think its all great ideas.  But he's too little for all that, I think you'll waste it.  Let's wait for that when he's like three.  So then I pouted for about four minutes until my brain started moving again and I thought, oh!  what about balls!  he loves balls more than anything..even the clown feet from the Foot Book. 

And there at 2am, where my best thinking always happens; we had our theme for the party.  And boy, did I go a little overboard on the theme.

We had a menu of delicious ball-shaped foods:

Meatballs, Kielbasa (cut into ball-ish circles), Mashed potatoes, fruit salad (grapes, blueberries, balled watermelon & cantaloupe), donut holes, cherry tomatoes, apples, oranges

We had "balls" on the cake

I picked up "decorations" of balls:

whiffle balls
bouncy balls
hackie sacks
mini beach balls
We had guests take home any ball of their choice & a little favor box of Kix cereal (hehe, little balls!)

And despite not originally setting out on a 'My Super Sweet First Birthday' -esque party plan; booboo's family went crazy with ball gifts...as in...Grey got THREE ball pits.  Each of the them different.  Each of them came with at least 20 soft-air balls.  And then Grammie&Pappy got an extra bag of 100 soft air balls. 

So with crazy amounts of "decoration" balls.  And the three ball pits.  And the mini playset we got him for his gift...It was a certified baby ball heaven in our basement...easily rivaling every McDonalds in the surrounding 50 miles.

Nearing the end of the party, we were reaching the limits of playtime possible without a nap for most guests.  So we whizzed through the presents (hi everyone!  we are so grateful for all the gifts and sorry if it seemed like we whipped through them - but a cranky baby was on the verge of exploding).  And then it was time for the big show. 

Although hesitant at first - he went to town on that sugary pile of yum.

We had set a goal* to have at least one child either pass out or throw up from all the fun at Grey's birthday party.  And although we did not reach that goal (as far as I know..anyone wanna fess up?), we did manage to exhaust our own son so that he slept for about 13 hours that night, and then took 2 two hour naps the following day.  Mission accomplished.  Happy Birthday, baby!

*I'm kidding about this goal..well, mostly kidding.