Walker's 1st Birthday Party!

The birthday boy! Walker loves his Pa Pa! Ok...maybe I should reconsider getting his hair cut! ;)

The Target cake

The smash cake. I think it's supposed to be a snail.

Sweet Ellie.

They were "fishing."

Then, they decided to go "fishing" in the baby pool.

We love Ginger!

Tanner and Kesha

Bricen with his pretty blue eyes.

The 3 Amigos

Someone decided to go skinny-dipping. :)

"Dr. Ryan" and Brant-Brant

Walker wasn't quite so sure what to do at first...

...so Daddy crammed it in his face.

And then Mama showed him how to dig right in.

I think he likes it. :)

This is more of Daddy's work.

The good thing about a pool party is that the birthday boy got to rinse off in the pool after the cake debauchery!

Opening presents!

The Publix cake. We ended up eating it...after everyone made fun of me for being so crazy about it. Ha!

Will we ever get a family photo with everyone smiling or even looking at the camera?

Today, we celebrated Walker's 1st birthday with a party at our neighborhood's pool pavilion. When choosing a location, I had no idea what the weather would be like, but I figured if it wasn't warm enough to get in the pool, we could always go play at the park right behind the pavilion. Once the kids spotted the pool, though, nothing or no one was going to pull them away- not even hardly pizza or birthday cake! It was definitely the perfect place for a party!

We celebrated Walker's birthday with our "Birmingham family" (our best friends-the Bowers, the Bowens, the Turners, and the Maddens) since our family couldn't be here. (We're planning another birthday party with our family when we go home for Easter, though). I tried to get pictures of everyone, but somehow I ended up with a lot of pictures of my children, Tanner, and Bricen. Isn't that the way it always goes?

Walker had a blast at his party, and he really enjoyed his cake. It took him a little while to warm up to the sugary stuff, but it wasn't long before he was licking his fingers and scavenging for crumbs. :)

Speaking of cake, what a dilemma that ended up being! Jeez! You see, I had ordered Walker a t-shirt with this blue dot pattern that matched the plates, the napkins, the invitations, etc. Well, I wanted a cake that also matched so I ordered a cake at Edgar's Bakery, which is my favorite bakery ever; however, I got to thinking about it, "why would I spend that much money for a blue polka dot cake? It can't be that hard to make, right? I'll just go to Publix." Biggest mistake ever! I gave them the invitation to match and emphasized that the main colors were turquoise blue and lime green; long story short, when I went to pick up the cake, it was royal blue and army green!! It probably sounds pretty catty of me, but the cake is one of my favorite things about a birthday party. ;) Anyways, I spent much of the party day running around trying to find a replacement cake since I didn't want to get all confrontational with the lady at Publix and hurt her feelings. Crazy, I know. Luckily, I found a pretty decent polka dot cake at Target, and it ended up being delicious! I even found Walker a little smash cake that sorta matched the colors. :) Looking back, it was all a little crazy of me....ok, a lot crazy, but you only turn 1 once, right?

Cake dilemma and all, the party couldn't have been more perfect. I definitely missed our families, but I'm so glad my mom and our best friends could be here to celebrate our sweet Walker's 1st birthday!

Oh, and sorry for the picture overload...I had a hard time deciding which ones to pick, so I just included them all! ;)