Gavin's First Birthday Party!

Although Gavin doesn't officially turn one for two more days, we held his birthday party yesterday (I didn't think a Tuesday night party would go over very well!).  The party was a success!  A lot of our family and some of our friends were able to come and celebrate with the Gavster.

Since Gav loves monkeys, his birthday party had a monkey theme.  So here are the obligatory pics of the decorations (because darn it, I spent money and time putting these things up, so there will be evidence that they existed! :)

Gavin's personalized birthday banner...its amazing what you can do with the internet.  How did people survive before Google?!

I wish I could have taken a picture to capture the look on Gav's face when he saw this monkey balloon for the first time.  He absolutely loved it, and then started punching it in the face, which for Gavin seems to be a sign of affection!

Aunt Allison knew of Gavin's love for monkeys as well, and made these awesome monkey cupcakes!

Ok, on to the actual party.  I warn you, there are going to be a lot of pics in this post, so buckle up!  Here Gavin and his friend Olivia are working on opening the pile of presents.  Gavin helped with about the first 3 presents and then decided it would be a lot more fun to play with the opened presents than doing the work of unwrapping, that's what Mommy is for!

As with any child I've ever met, Gavin was more interested in ripping the paper into tiny bits than in actually playing with the present.

I'm not sure what he's excited about here, but I just thought it was a cute pic.  He looks so old here!

Gavin clapping for the wagon.  He really does love it, he already went on a ride with Grandma and Grandpa Gillespie this morning.

Time for some shirtless cake eating!

These days, kids get their own cake to go crazy on called a "smash cake."  Gavin is trying to figure out what's going on here...

...tasting the first dainty finger of frosting...

...and quickly deciding that fistfuls of cake (frosting, I think he might have accidentally ingested some actual cake) is much more effective.

A good pic of the destruction.

"Where has cake been all my life?"

A birthday shot with Mommy and Daddy.  This is before Ryan smeared cake on my face.

Overall, we had a great time and we hope Gavin and his guests did too!  Happy (almost) First Birthday Gav!

(Are Ry and I the only ones that think that 1 looks like a 2?!)