First Birthday Weekend Part 2: the parrrtaaay!

So Saturday was the big party day. I had my 3rd night of terrible/no sleep. Remember that commercial for Disneyland {or world?} where the kids + the dad are tossing and turning and they both say "I'm too excited to sleep!" that was me. My body was exhausted but my mind wouldn't turn off! I'd wake from a light sleep at 3am and text myself an email of things I needed to do. I was driving myself insane! Unfortunately this led to a terrible tension headache that lasted the entire day of his party, but I was able to ignore it and enjoy the day anyway!

We had planned on getting out of bed at 6:30am-ish, when Malakai usually wakes us up. We didn't set an alarm and Malakai slept in. At 8am I startled awake and woke up Ben. We were supposed to pick up the cupcakes at or just after 8am! The cupcakes were Malakai's gift from a college friend who has her own company {I've mentioned her and her Sassy cupcakes before}. They had a family reunion so they couldn't come to the party. Thankfully Ben was able to roll out of bed and jump in the car to go get them. She made 70 perfect little cupcakes for us!

It then took us FOREVER to pack up all the decorations, food, and Malakai's stuff to be gone for the whole day. It pretty much takes the same ridiculous amount of stuff to be gone for a week as it does just one day...oh babies!

We got to my parents' house, where the party was held, at just before 11am {when we meant to be there by 8am- whoopsie!}. Ben + I got straight to work unloading, cleaning, decorating. My sister tried to get Malakai down for a nap, I tried to get Malakai down for a nap, then Ben SUCCEEDED at getting Malakai down for his nap by 11:30am. Thankfully little mister slept til just after 1pm and the party was slated to start at 1pm... seriously so perfect, thank the LORD!

I didn't get a chance to photograph all the decor + details but here is the monthly photo poster I made...

We displayed the cupcakes in a posterboard treasure chest Ben already had!

and I put the grab bags for the little kids all around it. They each had a pirate hat like Malakai's, a whistle with a pirate ship on it, an eye patch, and some other little goodies.

Immediate family arrived first and then extended family + friends started to trickle in. Malakai was passed around for photo ops and the like in his adorable pirate outfit.

{details on where his onesie is from will come next week- you won't want to miss it!}

Malakai's present from Ben + I was this giant Pirate Ship Hideout pool. It came with a million little accessories! Plus two cannons spray water and two shoot plastic balls!

{cheeesy family pose}

Ben has a full on Jack Sparrow-esque pirate costume from working out at camp back in the '06, but sadly after a couple hours of searching we couldn't find it anywhere! We both wore our Pirates of the Caribbean shirts that his parents got us in Disneyland back in 2007.

Oh, did I mention we had the party at my parents' place because of the FABULOUS pool?

{Unfortunately some of the big kids {aka my cousin + brother} got to the inflatables and they didn't last much longer after this occurred...}

After a million pictures in front of the thing we finally got in the water to play. I just love his little pose in this photo...Captain Malakai!

He was seriously the happiest kid ever the entire time! My mom kept telling me that it's a given that the birthday-boy has a melt-down during the 1st Birthday party, but not my boy!

Next we opened presents. We seriously have the most generous family + friends! Malakai got a ton of great presents. I can honestly say that we didn't get one thing that needs to be returned, even for duplicate or wrong size reasons!!!

{the chair he's sitting in is from a set I got when I was little}

After presents was smash cake time! I made him his very own banana cake and topped it with cool-whip for him to dig into. 

{confused by the singing + the flames}

Everyone ooh'd + aww'd while he attempted to eat his cake. Every time he started to really get into it the crowd would cheer which would startle him and he'd stop and look to see what all the fuss was about. It was pretty hilarious.

He wasn't really getting that there was a cake underneath all the creamy whipped-goodness so I helped him out a bit. 

 {this pic cracks me up, looks like he ate the whole thing and is just full to the max!}

Later some more friends arrived and Malakai got to play with Henry in the ball pit!

{this boat is also from my childhood, but was mostly for my younger siblings. It was a pool or a sandbox back then. Such a cool toy!}

It was such a fun {and EXHAUSTING} day. We were so wiped out that Ben actually fell asleep on the floor that evening before we went home! 

and this wasn't even the end to our busy weekend...