Airplane Theme 1st Birthday Party

Phillip's first birthday was a huge success! My sister put in so much work planning and organizing the entire thing. She decided to do a vintage airplane theme for the party, and it turned out so great!

I went down to my sisters house early Saturday morning to help set up. We got the tables ready, put together the cardboard airplane photo booth, hung the "Time Flies" banner of pictures from Phillip's first year, iced cupcakes, and put the final touches on everything, all while entertaining Phillip before guests arrived at 11:30am! Poor Josh was in bed with a bad flu, so it was just the two of us. Thankfully, we got everything put together just in time :)

I love the little vintage airplane she used as a cake topper!

"Baggage Claim" with favors for the kids in a vintage suitcase

"Baggage Check" label for the gift table

"Time Flies" banner with pictures of Phillip's first year!

Cute little chalkboard with "Phillip Facts"

airplane shaped PB&J sandwiches for the kids...(and Grandpa)!

"Whoa, so many people!"

It's no secret that Grami is Phillip's favorite!

Telling Mommy about how excited he is for baseball season to start!

Activities for kiddos: finger painting!

Phillip loved his new Lightning McQueen truck from his friend Hudson! We played with it all day Sunday! 

Flying the airplane with my friend Graycee

The sweetest part of the entire day was when we gathered around Phillip's high chair to sing him happy birthday. When everyone started singing, his reaction was priceless. He had this shy, surprised look on his face. Like he couldn't believe it was all just for him! He had the sweetest, bashful expression as we sang, but when we were done he started smiling and clapping. It was so cute! Thankfully, his Auntie Amanda caught it on video! 

So happy I captured this picture as we sang to him!

The most special gift of the day, was the hand made quilt from Grami (my mom). She has been working so hard on this quilt for a while now, and got it finished just in time for Phillip's first birthday. This photo doesn't do it justice. It's so beautiful, with so much detail! The little elephant ears lift up, and their tails are hand-stitched. I especially love the skateboarding scene since Andrew has already starting to teach Phillip to skateboard!

Another reason this quilt is so special, is that my Grandma Norene used to make a quilt for each grandchild (I think there are like 25 of us?!) when we were born, then another one for high school graduation. I love that my mom is carrying on that tradition, and sewing beautiful quilts just like her mom did.

My sister is such an amazing mommy. On top of working full time, she managed to plan and do a million crafts to host the perfect 1st birthday party for Phillip! AND if that wasn't enough, she proved to be a true bad ass by running her second half marathon the next day! 366 days after Phillip was born, she ran her second half in the same time she ran her first! Good job, sister!

**Photography side note: I'm proud of myself for shooting the birthday party in manual mode. However, I learned it's really hard to adjust the settings, and quickly, as the light changes. There were a lot of shadows that made it difficult too. Also, next time I shoot something like this, I'll definitely use auto focus, there are some pictures that aren't quite in focus because I was trying to capture moments and didn't take enough time to focus each shot after changing the settings.