A Great Party!

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Well, the first year has officially come and gone, and we sent it out with a bang! Max's “Octopus's Garden party yesterday was a smashing success! Our little house was packed with more people than we've ever had at one time, and our new front yard was put to excellent use!
There are LOADS of photos here, and if you were here and took some, please please please email them to me!

And now, without further adieu…

The whole spread, all we need is the guests! We had ordered a 6′ long sandwich from Togos… the “Yellow Submarine Sandwich” (ha ha, right?) Well, when my parents arrived at Togos to pick up our gigantic sandwich, the guy said that he hadn't been happy with the bread (stale) so he instead made SIX 3′ long sandwiches! Yup. Do the math. 6×3=18 FEET of sandwich! It's a good thing, too, since most of it got eaten! Katie took the last sandwich and leftover pasta salad and donated it to the PD. Other than that, we only had enough sandwich left for our dinner!
Along with the sandwich, we had sushi from the Fish Market (CA rolls and spicy tuna rolls) and Toby surprised us by adding his fabulous ceviche as well. For sides, there were potato chips, Nana's awesome red potato salad, my friend's Mediterranean Pasta Salad, the standard veggie tray with hummus and ranch, and, of course, goldfish crackers.
For sweets, we had homemade fruit salsa with cinnamon sugar pita chips, Finding Nemo fruit snacks, Funfetti cupcakes and a fabulous octopus pear cake

My fabulous friend Heather loaned me the cake pan, and I'm thrilled with how it turned out! I must confess though, I wimped out on the frosting and was just going to dust it with powdered sugar. Katie stepped in and took over for me, and I just helped with the decorating. (And Faith helped me!) I think it turned out pretty cute, and to answer a question my mom asked… those are not real rocks around the bottom; they're chocolate!

After some discussion about which comes first, cake or gifts, we decided to open gifts first… Jamie and I are totally overwhelmed by the presents everyone brought! We are SET for bath toys and books (and octopus toys! LOL Very popular, bringing the theme into the gifts!)

Will whoever we're smiling at in this picture please send me a copy? It looks like a nice picture of us! LOL

Jamie's friend Gena, from work, made this amazing pillow for Max! Notice his name, and the yellow submarine and all the adorable details! I'm truly blown away by how talented some of our friends are!

Grandpa Ed, signing Max's official Birthday tablecloth… it's a family tradition to have all the birthday guests sign their names on the birthday tablecloth! Lucinda embroidered the gorgeous design in the center, with Max's name, birthday and very important Beatles references included! (We also have a Christmas tablecloth that we received as a wedding gift from Lucinda… same concept)
Max checking out the basket of party favors… he's thrilled that I over-made and he ended up with almost a complete set! He's just missing the shark (I only made 1 and Faith snagged it!) and the goldfish!

Max and Lucinda

A great pic of Dave, Ann Marie and family! They're even all facing the same direction AND smiling! As in impressive side note, Dave took the opportunity to put all of his Team in Training experience to good use and rode his bike to our house from his! It's like 45 miles each way! (You can sponsor Dave on his ride by going to his blog, which I've linked here) Dave is also how Jamie has caught the biking bug, and they're riding in a century (100 miles in a day!) in August.

Where was I? Oh, right. Presents. Cake.

The cake!

Here's a random assortment of a newly one-year-old attempting to turn himself into a Smurf using buttercream frosting and all of his newly one-year-old fingers!

The aftermath (although it doesn't look that bad in this picture!)

Faith is such a help when it comes to cleaning up! “I help, Auntie Lizz! I clean Maxwell! Towel please!”

And WOO HOO! NOW it's a party! Someone's naked and bathing in the sink!

So that's it, in a nutshell! It was a fantastic day! The weather was great, the food was great, our friends and family are great… thanks so much to all who came!