Jasper's 1st Birthday Party in Texas

On Saturday, December 1, we celebrated Jasper's 1st birthday at home. Drew & I were up late the night before trying to get ready while Jasper was sleeping. It was similar to circumstances the year before when we were up late getting the house ready for Jasper. Outside our house, workers from the city of Austin's electrical department were working to remove a street light that had been compromised structurally by a large water leak during the afternoon. (Water started springing up from the base of this street light and flooded our parking spot and the side of our yard that had no grass). The water department guys came sometime after midnight to fix the water leak that for some hours in the early evening had me trepidatious that we'd have our water turned off at some point in the evening. Drew & I both laughed as we contemplated the potential of the water essentially "breaking" with all that mess, sometime around 3am ... exactly when, one year prior, I crawled back into our bed to inform Drew that my water had broken. Thankfully nothing like that took place.

Jasper decided to take only two short (~30min) naps on Saturday, yet he was a perfect gentleman with his guests. Before people arrived, we did a trial run on the frosting to make sure he'd like it and want to get all messy with it at the party. He did like it!
I did not make a specially designed cake. Instead we just had cupcakes with whipped chocolate frosting.
Guests at the party were (seen below, clockwise from left): Kathryn & Andy Rouse, Ame & Ryan Schillington (and Azalea - not shown, but she's in the corner digging in her mom's purse) and Chris & Holly Thurman. Jorge & Sarah Angulo, Julie & Kevin Weaver (and kids) and Yobany & Denise Mayen were not photoed.

Also at the party were Mark and Teri Burchfield. They entertained Jasper with books on the couch while the adults ate. In the course of getting the food ready and managing the oven between the brie and the side dishes, I must have inadvertently turned off the oven between courses. Therefore, when we were ready to eat a short time after 6pm, I discovered that the corn casserole and cheesy potatoes were not cooked. So ... dinner was late, at 7pm. That means all the kids had already eaten and entertained themselves while we ate.

Here Jasper is taking a reading break with Mark after dinner. He loves this "Dig, Dig, Digging" book ... of course, because it's about trucks!

Here we go ... everyone is crowded around the table singing to Jasper, and he is really transfixed by what's going on ... not by the fire in front of him.

He was not eager to eat his cupcake, but Azalea was. We thought she would set a good example for him and encourage him to polish his off ... but alas, he just wasn't interested. In this way Jasper is totally his father's son! I was happy to lick the frosting off the cupcakes all weekend, and Drew could just take 'em or leave 'em.


We did get Jasper to try a little frosting, and I added a little to the face painting. Regardless of whether he liked what was offered, he was still having fun.

Jasper's friends were sweet to bring him gifts, and he had gifts to open from us and from his aunties, uncles and cousins.

From Azalea and her parents, Jasper got a play blackberry. I think he's trying to tell me, "Mom, dad won't let me play with my present."

So Drew relented and let the kid play on his own. Look, he already knows exactly the way to hold the blackberry. It's hysterical!

Jasper LOVED having Azalea at his party. Azalea is walking, and Jasper really enjoyed trying to catch her. She was sort of playing hard to get again. :) They shared playing with a big pink ball, and they both shared dismantling a kleenex box. I did not see what went down, but I was told that Jasper pulled out all the kleenex and Azalea tried to shred them. I came upon this mass of kleenex on the floor and could tell they had a good time. At the end of the night, Jasper gave Azalea a good night kiss.

It was a great night, and were very blessed to have our friends here to celebrate with us. We also enjoyed treating them to dinner and dessert (which included Teo's gelato) to thank them for all the ways they have supported and cared for us over this past year. It's been a good year!