Jones's First Birthday Party

Y'all, all I can say is
"Brooke Rainey."

Jones's first birthday party could not have gone any better.

Wait a minute.

I take that back. I guess it COULD have been better, if Jones hadn't woken up Saturday morning with a teething-fever. It'd also have helped if his pregnant mother didn't look like she's carrying sextuplets, three of which are gestating in the large pockets of her massive cheeks.

Other than that, though, things could not have gone better.

Because of our upcoming trip to Disney (6 more days!), I'd been planning to do a vintage Mouseketeer theme for the party. I lived with the idea for several months and never felt any inspiration whatsoever, so about a month ago, when the time came to pick a date and start the actual planning, Jeremy and I decided on a "Boy of Fall" theme, which both encapsulated one of the nicknames we've used for Jones, since finding out his autumnal due date, and allowed us to incorporate watching football into the party.  Right or wrong, we only get twelve good weeks of it every year, so we're pretty unwilling to give up any of them (thus the fact that we consulted the SEC schedule before planning our wedding and had a big screen TV at our reception).

Once the theme was chosen, I found Jones's party outfit on Etsy. It ended up being the centerpiece of the entire "look" of the party. I then made the most important call of the planning period - the one to Brooke Rainey, whose many talents do not end with photography. Among many other things, that girl knows her way around Photo Shop. She's designed our wedding invites, as well as Jones's birth announcements. It only seemed right that she'd do his birthday party invitations, too.  I absolutely love what she came up with, all based on the Etsy outfit.  That same outfit also inspired 13 year-old Miss Maggie Shook in the design she came up with for Jones's cakes, and though they had absolutely nothing to do with football, my 10 year-old niece Lizzie Gray made some of her famous brownies. They were devoured before I could even get one, which is okay, given the number I'd sampled on the day before, a contributing factor, no doubt, to my looking like I do.

The chili-for-dinner decision was an easy one, too. Jones loves my mom's chili. For his party, Jeremy made the chili, because Mom was out of town, and though it almost caused a divorce (suffice it to say, I am NOT sweet at 2:30 a.m.), it was absolutely delicious and a HUGE hit. He also made both cinnamon and vanilla ice cream, because he's the best husband in the world. My contribution to the food portion of the party was buying four gallons of Chick-fil-A sweet tea and putting pre-sliced cheese on an SEC platter.

We make a great team.

I joke about the late nite chili-cooking session, but I honestly cannot say enough how helpful Jeremy was in putting this party together. If I said it once, I said it a thousand times over the past weekend, "Sweetheart, I don't know any other daddies who are so helpful with their baby's birthday parties." His mama sure did raise him right, and I tell you this (as I say all the time): he's too good for me.

I just hope I do half the job with my sons that my mother-in-law did with hers.

Speaking of "my sons," like I said, Jones woke up with a low-grade fever on the day of his party. He had no symptoms, other than a brand new tooth that had popped through, so we assumed the two were related. Regardless, he was sweet as could be all day long, though he sucked the good off of his thumb all through the party, and by the end of it, all he wanted to do was lay, lifeless, on his mother's bountiful chest. I, of course, loved this.

Here are two of the more memorable moments from the party:

1) When he opened the Peek-a-Boo Monkey from cousin Amy's family, he just laughed and laughed. It was adorable.
2) When we gave him his cake, he had no clue what to do but stare back at the crowd in front of him and suck his thumb for security's sake.

See what I mean?


The next morning, Jones woke up, and he still had a little fever, so we stayed home from church. Though we hated to miss, it ended up being a good chance for him to check out his new loot from the day before. We were so grateful for those who came - many of whom made the drive down from Canton. Our lives are saturated with the love of our families and friends, and we are so blessed far beyond what we deserve.

"I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart;

before the gods, I sing Your praise;

I bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks

² 

to Your name for Your steadfast love and your faithfulness..."

- Psalm 138:1-3

I posted a big bunch of pictures on Facebook. There's a few more below.

Just pretend I don't look like I swallowed the backside of a razorback.