Dylan's train birthday party

On Saturday evening we celebrated Dylan's 1st birthday. We had his party at the park. I wanted the party to be perfect. But, despite my best efforts, I ran behind on time and didn't deck out the cake as much as I had wanted and ended up late to the party! Oh dear! But despite those setbacks I still think it went pretty well.

The theme for the party was trains. I was so mad at myself because I left his train conductor hat (not that he would keep it on his head anyways) and shoes at home, but at least we still had him in his overalls and bandanna. We had fruit salad, potato salad, ham and turkey subs, and my fruit punch that became quite infamous because at first nobody was drinking it until I got on to everyone about not drinking my special birthday punch. Let's just say that after that I never heard the end of it! To top the party off, we had a 3d train cake. A big thanks to coolest-birthday-cakes.com for all of the great ideas! It was a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. I decided to make the cake and frosting from scratch. Yes, it's more work, but for whatever reason, in the back of my mind it made me happy to know that I put the extra effort in to it. If only I had more time to decorate it like I had thought up in my head. Oh well, I guess I need to let it go!

Anyhow, we all had a lot of fun except for Dylan. The poor thing's lip decided to swell up twice its normal size. I am still puzzled what caused it, but am guessing that it may be a food allergy. After only eating a few bites of his cake he wouldn't stop fussing and had to call it quits. But, thanks to his Aunt Kimberly for running to get some children's Benadryl, he was good to go to open his presents later on that night. We had so much fun and appreciated our family's help and support. Thanks!
Here is Dylan showing off his new walking skills to the family.


My 3d train cake.


Wow! Look at all of the presents!

Dylan is ready to dig in!



First you have to sing happy birthday!


Then, you have to blow out the candle and make a wish.

Now you can dig in!


I think Dylan liked the cake!


But only for a little while because his swollen lip was really bothering him!


Dylan feels good enough to open his presents!


He loved ALL of his cool toys! But was very excited over his ride-on train toy that his Mommy and Daddy got him!


Here he is with his train toy and if you look closely, you can see how swollen his lip was!

Most of the pictures seen were provided by Kara Opp with her new fancy camera. Thanks for the great shots!