Think you can top this 1st birthday celebration?

I love kids, parties and birthday cake. Those are facts. So if you combine all 3, I'm a pretty happy camper.

This past weekend was full of GREAT kids, a FUN party and YUMMY birthday cake!

My nephew, Colten, celebrated his 1st birthday in STYLE. Kudos to Marie and Aunt Lainey for all they planning they did to make it such a success.

Here's a recap of our weekend in Warner Robins:

We arrived late Friday night

The girls discovered that Gran (Brandon's mom, Debbie) had bought a few new toys for her toy stash. The piano was a HUGE hit!

Saturday was the big party day. It was a John Deere theme... that explains all the cowboy hats and overalls.

Sheriff Colten

Chandler LOVED riding on the John Deere Power Wheel.

The girls: Left to Right: Brandon's sister, Amanda; Me; Sister-in-law, Lainey

This is my buddy Payleigh. Payleigh's dad, Caleb, has been a friend of Brandon's and Ben's (Brandon's brother) since childhood. We were so glad that he could come and we were really excited to meet Payleigh for the first time.
* I've decided that I need a brown eyed, brown haired little one of my own. It would be nice to finally have a kid that looks like he or she belongs to me!!

One of Colten's gifts was a John Deere wagon. Steve (his grandpa) hooked it up to the back of his riding lawnmower and gave the kids rides around the yard. They loved it!

Horse rides were next... We are really glad that Amanda was there to ride with all of the kids. I've ridden enough to be fairly comfortable on a horse, but not any time recently and I'm not about to get on a horse I don't know with someone else's precious little one!

The birthday boy got the 1st ride

Chandler got her turn

Here's Riley's age-appropriate horsey!

The birthday boy and his parents: Aunt Lainey, Cousin Colten, and Uncle Ben

Chandler and Mommy

Riley and Aunt Lainey
Aunt Lainey doesn't mind carrying Riley around. She weighs nothing compared to Big Boy Colten!

It was really windy on Saturday and it got pretty cool outside. We snuggled down while everyone was busy filling their plates full of yummy food.

My blue eyed girl

Time for presents!!! I have never seen so much John Deere stuff in all my life!

Here's a non-John Deere gift. Gran and the Chief (Brandon's parents) got Colten a Fisher Price Little People Animal Sounds Farm.

Brandon's mom decorated the cake. The vegetable row markers say, "Happy First Birthday Colten". Everyone thought it was adorable (it was pretty tasty too!).

As we were leaving the house that night, Marie (Lainey's mom) said, "Bye Riley" and waved at her. To our surprise, Riley waved right back. So Marie, it's now in the baby book... you got the first official wave.

We were wiped out Saturday night. We kept looking at the clock and saying, "I can't believe it's only..." It felt SO late!!!

Sunday was full of family and GOOD FOOD. We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Miles Family. Pappy (Brandon's grandfather) was able to come into town and Caleb and Payleigh were able to have lunch with us too.

Monday morning before we left to come back home we took Chandler to Monkey Joe's.
Last time we were in Warner Robins, Debbie and I took Chandler there and we had a blast. In fact I was so taken with it that I was convinced I should open one here in Cleveland! According to their website, one should be opening in the area soon.... I missed my big chance!

If you ever get a chance to visit a Monkey Joe's, DO IT!

Even the parents can play! Chandler wore me out the first time we went so I let Brandon have all the fun this time!

The drive home is NEVER fun, but we were all so tired from such a busy weekend that it wouldn't have mattered if we were driving 3.5 hours or 3.5 minutes... ok, 3.5 minutes would have been MUCH BETTER!