Caleb's 1st Birthday

Caleb's first birthday party took place today. We had it at our friends' neighborhood clubhouse and pool, which turned out to be an ideal place for the varied group in attendance. There were 12 children from infancy to age 7, as well as around 30 adults at the party. The only family members at the party were Caleb's Aunt Traci and Uncle Josh, and Great Uncle Mitch. We had snacks and cake, and the Gator basketball game was playing on the clubhouse TV (the only way the guys would come). I just used balloons and framed pictures of Caleb for decorations, and I made the cakes myself with Aunt Traci's help. I also put together a slide show of Caleb's first year and played that after the basketball game. We didn't really do anything structured like games or a pinata because the kids were all different ages and many were toddlers like Caleb. Everybody just swam and played until cake & song time, and then went back to swim and play some more. Caleb's grandmother (my mom) paid for an amateur photographer to come to the party and take spontaneous and posed pictures for an hour. The pictures turned out extremely well and I'm very glad that she came because we might not have gotten many pictures ourselves with as busy as we both were during the party. All in all I was extremely happy with the party and really wouldn't have done anything differently in retrospect: it was economical, a lot of fun, and we got great pictures!