Brendan's Barnyard Bash

I'll never forget my little guy's first birthday party.

The week before his party

(as I was working feverishly to get things together)

I noticed I wasn't the only one feverish.

Brendan was sporting a temperature of 101.5.

Yikes!

Turns out he had hand, foot, and mouth disease.

No problem . . . just reschedule the party to next weekend.

Then Megan got it . . .

Then John got it . . .

Seriously?

Seriously.

Since we don't let a little coxsackie virus slow us down,

we decided to carry on with the barnyard bash

the following weekend . . . rash or no rash. (Ewww!)

Actually, we informed all the guests to enter our contaminated barnyard at their own risk.
I'm so glad some decided our heebie jeebies were worth the risk . . .

after all, every child deserves over-the-top first birthday, right???

It think it is a requirement.

I did my best . . .

The cake was fresh lemon with raspberry filling and white almond with raspberry filling. The barn was carved from rice krispie treats and covered in fondant. I sculpted all the little farm animals from fondant. I loved this cake. LOVED IT.

(I made those little sheep out of chocolate covered cake balls. Aren't they cute?)

And no dessert table would be complete without sugar cookies!

I made this for the front porch and realized

there would be some who would make fun of me . . .

and some who would recognize the creative genius of it all.

I hung this on the front door.

I made the silverware look like carrots because I'm a dork like that.

(Don't even try to lie . . . I know you're running out right now to get yourself some green forks and orange napkins to make your own little carrots, aren't you?)

And here is my little farmer boy, Brendan.

And my little cowgirl Megan.

Here is Megan moo-ing in the sign I painted.
This, of course, led to everyone wanting a turn.

Here's Austyn.

And me :)

And Aunt Katie.

Brendan and Carter . . . too cool for the cardboard cow.

Here is John and Brendan watching the slide show of Brendan's first year.

And no birthday photo montage would be complete without a photo of Nana and my little guy.(Only, compare the size of him to Nana . . . not so little, huh?)

Looking at this picture makes me want to call Nana to make sure Brendan didn't break her hip or anything.

It was so wonderful to have our family and friends with us to celebrate Brendan's birthday. We shared a lot of things together . . . love, laughter, great food, sweet memories. Let's just hope we didn't share our coxsackie.

And in lieu of party favors, we sent our guests home with a squirt of antibacterial hand gel.

That concludes my tale of Brendan's Barnyard Rash . . . I mean bash!