john's 40th birthday!

this has been a BIG birthday year in the rutherford house!  first was salsa's 1st birthday celebration and it was quickly followed with an equally momentous birthday...john's 40th!

looking back i am so pleased that i did this and that it turned out so lovely because i literally threw it together at the last minute!  again, pinterest came to the rescue!  such super fun ideas!  i knew i wanted to do a masculine beer party and have an adults only celebration.

for the invitation, i found a cute evite from punchbowl that was a beer keg.  we did "cheers and beers for 40 years!  john's turning 40!" as the tag line.  we asked our friends to bring a bottle of their fave beer to enjoy and an extra one for john's beer fridge.

we had tortilla roll ups, pretzels, grapes, a veggie tray, cheese and crackers, and birthday cupcakes of course.  we also had tea and lemon water for the non-beer drinkers like me!  it was a come and go party but it ended up being a come and stay and laugh a lot party which was awesome!  it was such a sweet gift to me to see so many of john's colleagues come and celebrate him (and tease him lots too!).  he got beer but he also received adult diapers, prune juice, denture cream, reading glasses and...well, you get the idea!  so funny and we already have plans to save these "useful" items and re-gift them to the next unlucky soul who turns 40!

happy birthday baby! 

salsa's 1st birthday party

i had such a hard time settling on a theme for salsa's 1st birthday party.  we chose not to do a theme in his nursery and he really shows no affinity for one thing over another at this point so it was really tough.  i took my decision-making to pinterest and saw lots of cute ideas.  the theme that emerged as my favorite was vintage airplanes.

i liked the idea of how fast time flies, and this has been especially poignant with my 3rd baby many years later after #1 and #2.  many months before i had found a cute little outfit at a thrift store for $1.50 that had a little party hat and cupcake on the front.  i thought, "hey, for a buck fifty even if he doesn't end up wearing this, i wouldn't be out much!"  you can imagine my surprise and delight when i pulled it out of his closet and only then saw that it had a vintage airplane on the front as well!

we started the day off by giving salsa his present from us: an activity cube! i think he liked it!

i wanted to keep the party simple because 1) my one year old would not care if it was fancy or not and 2) my one year old does not consistently nap which makes getting anything "extra" done around here next to impossible.

nonetheless, i was able to pull off a few cute decorations.  i made a banner with pictures i have taken each month of his life.  it was fun to see them all together for comparison sake.

i made a chocolate cake with "cloud" frosting and vanilla sprinkle cupcakes with blue frosting.  we also had "in flight snacks" of pretzels and grapes.  for drinks we had blue "jet fuel" and lemon water.

i made these little airplanes out of lifesavers, smarties, and sticks of gum for party favors.  too bad that in the mayhem, i forgot to give them out as people left!  oops!

we had a lovely group of friends and family and i was so surprised that salsa enjoyed opening presents.  he really knew what to do and seemed to enjoy the attention!

eating the cupcake was a different story!  he did not like the blue frosting and as he tried to get it off his hands, he only made matters worse by spreading it everywhere.  his general distaste quickly turned into crying so we scooped him up, cleaned him up and he happily ate cheerios.

thanks to everyone who came to celebrate his miraculous life and first year! we are so grateful and thankful to God for his good health and the prayers of friends and family!

happy 1st birthday salsa!  we love you!