I survived.

We had Clay's first birthday party recently, and I'm happy to say that I survived. We decided early on to invite just family members, because booger gets whiny when there are too many folks around, and we were throwing some relatives into the mix that he doesn't see that often. (Plus, the guest list included two five-year-old nephews. May God have mercy on our souls.)

We did an evening cookout, and all told, there were about 12 people there. Because his birthday is in July, and because it's an election year, we did a patriotic theme. I had red and blue streamers, bunting, flag placemats, and red and white pinwheels all over the place. We tied a HUGE red/white/blue bow to the mailbox, too. (We even did a cute custom invite for the party, in the style of an invite for an election fundraiser. You know, "Paid for by The Citizens to Celebrate Clay Bradshaw," etc.)

On the menu was pretty much the usual for a cookout -hamburgers, turkey brats, chips, summer corn salad, and these cute little cupcakes that I decorated with blueberries and raspberries. I LOVE cupcakes for parties because there is no messy cutting and extra cake plates. Dessert is self-serve and already portioned into neat servings. People can always have another cupcake if they want more.

Clay didn't quite know what to make of his birthday cupcake, but hubs helped him blow the candle out and got him started on it. Once he was down from the highchair, he played adorably with the two nephews, following them around with contagious little giggles.

When we opened presents, he was pretty amazed at the haul. Hubs and I have been woefully lax about buying him toys (who wants more crap to pick up at the end of the day?), so he's basically been playing with the same stuff since he was born. This morning, he ran around maniacally, looking at all his new stuff and chewing on it to make sure it was real. We are retiring some old playthings to make room for the new stuff, so it should all even out in the grand scheme of things.

After a bit of play, why, it was seven o'clock! Family made their way out the door, we plunked little man into his bath and then into bed, and then Brian and I collapsed on the bed, completely and utterly bereft of energy.

But, hey, we made it, right? We made it a whole year, and the kid's still alive. PLUS, we threw a pretty awesome birthday party for a 1-year-old. So, who gives out the medals? Do we even get T-shirts?