(I can't believe I didn't document the Manimal's first birthday. Bad mama. But I'm doing it now and I'm back dating it so that when I make our family yearbook, I won't miss it.)


Fauntleroy's first birthday was a fun, full weekend. Once again, Jodi and Chad came to the rescue creating an amazing cake and photographing everything. I don't know how I'd do birthdays without them. 

Creating a party fit for a Manimal meant filling it with the Manimal's favorite things: splashing. books. yelling. The splashing and the yelling were guaranteed with a large kiddy pool.





For the slightly older crowd (including several husbands and my dad), I bought a lot of plastic water guns. We had two filling stations--5 gallon buckets full of water--and there was plenty of sneaking and squirting.



(And apparently Nana! Ha. I didn't even realize she'd gotten in on the water gun action.)

We had sandwiches and snacks on the patio, and a Manimal cake.

What is a Manimal cake, you ask? Chad and I weren't sure either, but at the VERY last minute, I decided a Manimal cake looked like one of Sandra Boynton's Birthday Monsters. We love Boynton around here, and her Birthday monsters are the best: silly and tricky but ultimately kind and so much fun.

As always, Chad did an incredible job making half of a vision a whole--and tasty!--reality.





Could that be any more perfect?



And our Manimal dug right in!





It was such a sweet party for such a sweet boy. We were so grateful to be surrounded by so many friends and family. And I got to use the Birthday One that I made for Hamish's first birthday! It's been living in the attic (even survived our move!) and it made me happy that we could decorate his birthday spread like we decorated hers.







The afternoon was Manimal approved!