Happy, happy birthday, Max!!

Max's Easter egg hunt birthday party was tons of fun. We watched the weather closely all week, hoping that Saturday would be a nice enough day to be outside. And luckily it was, at least for a little while. It was a bit windy, and kind of cool, but nothing a jacket couldn't handle.

The kids had a good time hunting for eggs. I stuffed about 250 eggs with candy, toys, and money, and prayed that we would have enough for the 10 kids there. Well, if you want to know how many eggs are enough, apparently 25 eggs per kid is too many. Most of the kids got tired of searching before all the eggs were found, and instead just wanted to open however many they had to see what surprise was inside. We had three golden eggs with certificates inside that let the lucky child pick a special prize - a kite, DVD's or markers. We didn't announce that the golden eggs existed, but once the first was found, it became quite the hunt to find the other two.

My wonderful mother made Max's birthday cakes, and they were spectacular. Everyone ooh'd and aah'd. And of course they were also quite tasty.

It's always so much fun to watch a child on their first birthday to see how they will handle their cake. Ellie wasn't much of a fan of getting too messy, and we had to force her hands into her cake. Max, on the other hand, couldn't get enough of the chocolate goodness. He had it everywhere...in his hair, in his eyes, up his nose, and in his ears. His ears were a result of him talking on his cake "phone," which you can see in one of the pictures below. He pretends that anything that is roughly the size of a cell phone is actually a phone and will put it to his ear and say "hello." Especially when someone else eggs him on and keeps repeating "hello" to him, which Jason decided to do. It was adorable and hilarious, but not so funny when I had to clean him up.

And, of course, Max raked in the presents...too many presents. We're very lucky and blessed to have many loving family members and friends that are very good to my children. We are very happy that so many of them were able to join us for Max's special day.