PS. Rhett's First Year!

If you're interested in seeing the monthly pictures that made up 'Rhett's First Year' photo banner mentioned in the previous post, here ya go! Enjoy!

I interrupt the originally planned post to bring you...

Rhett Charles' First Birthday Party!

Is it bad to add that I'm glad it's over? I planned and google searched themes since the day Rhett came home from the hospital and now that the event has been deemed a success the pressure is really off.

Ten years from now no one is going to care that he only had a small family party for his 2nd birthday or that we celebrated by going out to dinner for his 5th birthday but his FIRST birthday... the one that commemorates his first year of true existence and the fact that his parents managed to keep the child alive... now that one will be remembered.

And so I take a few minutes today... put the post about our visit to Sweden on the back burner to bring you a little from Rhett's special day (equally special for us as parents).

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I dreaded checking the weather forecast.

If it was going to rain I didn't want to know because then I wouldn't be nearly as excited about the party.

Rain would have really put a kibosh on my party.

Where would all these people go? What about the 100 yards of flags I purchased, ping pong balls, ice chests etc. etc. Where would they GO?

I finally broke down and checked the projected weather when it meant we needed to know in order to purchase a fest table or not.

So we bought one.

77 degrees.

That's heaven here in Germany.

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The morning of was actually relatively stress free due to my superb planning (if I do say so myself). I had made the cake pops, dill dip, pasta salad and potato salad on Thursday. I baked and decorated the cupcakes on Friday. Chad bought the meats, cheese and fresh rolls on Saturday and all I had to do was a little tidying up and set up the spread.

Of course this took me until 1230 and I had guests arriving at 100 which barely left any time for a shower but no one cares what you look like for your child's first birthday party.

They understand what you've just been through.

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Anyways, guests arrived and although I can't tell you exactly what I was doing the entire 3 hours of the birthday party I think I had a good time.

More importantly, everyone else had a great time and that's all that really matters.

Rhett had such a great time that after eating his cupcake he slept for 2.5 hours.

It's his party and he'll nap if he wants to.

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Some of our guests (friends) stayed until 7 but that was okay because that ensured that every last bit of energy was drained from our bodies and no one had problems sleeping that night.

I bet Rhett dreamed of cupcakes (gosh, he loved it).

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The Decorations

I talk about taking a picture of Rhett and his age (in months) in this post .... and here is the final product. It came out just the way I wanted it to and everyone loved it!

I bought the tent below as a present for Rhett's birthday and for added decoration. Unfortunately, Rhett avoided it like the plague and Meatloaf made it his dog house.

Rhett has warmed up to it but Meatloaf still sees it as his. I tried.

The Food

The menu included: Auntie's pasta salad, my potato salad, homemade veggie dip, fresh fruit, variety of meats and cheese, fresh assortment of rolls, chips, Auntie Carly's strawberry swirl cupcakes and cake pops. And a friend of ours made two additional dips which were great!

The Fun Had By All!

Rhett's shirt had a 1 on it. I swear. We bought it at the airport in Amsterdam especially for this occasion.

It was a lot of work, but it was well worth it for this little boy.

A birthday is just the first day of another 365-day journey around the sun. Enjoy the trip.

-Author Unknown

To my fellow military wives:

*Decorations purchased from here, they ship quickly to APO.

Some party supplies (like mini chalk boards) were purchased from the Teddy 1 Euro store. If you live in Germany and haven't found one, you must! Find one near you here.

I ♥ Helsinki, Finland

My favorite stop on the cruise was Finland. I just thought the country was absolutely beautiful. I have no desire to go in the winter... especially when our guide pointed out the 'Ice breakers' parked in the bay. Knowing that a large body of water becomes a solid ice cube in the winter is a bit of a turn off for me. The only time I may consider visiting is for Christmas... only because the Finns know best that Finland = The North Pole. Christmas in the North Pole? Awesome. Just don't tell the other Baltic countries because they call Santa theirs.

Anyways, although our tour was good, you could easily just walk off the ship and walk around downtown Helsinki. They had a great market going on and a few other tourist destinations within walking distance of each other.

Our first stop off the ship was Helsinki Cathedral in Senate Square. It's quite different from the other cathedrals we visited on this trip simply because it is more modest and monochromatic. I found it to be very beautiful.

After the Cathedral, we saw the olympic stadium and some significant architecture in Helsinki. We drove outside of the city to an outdoor museum (quite popular in all the countries we visited) where they have recreated or preserved original homesteads, churches, etc. of the early Finns. We were supposed to visit one in Tallinn but decided against it and I'm kind of glad we did. There are so many similarities between all the Baltic countries that it would have been a lot of the same. It was interesting to see how they stored their food and lived day in and day out in rugged weather in earlier times.

After leaving (but not before coffee and a cinnamon roll), we headed to the 'Rock Church.' This church was excavated and built into a giant rock (hence the name). It's one of the most popular destinations in Helsinki, welcoming half a million people a year. It was pretty amazing. And their bathrooms were awesome. Just sayin'.

My biggest regret is not ditching the tour here. We had our opportunity but we didn't realize how close the boat was so we thought it best to stay with the bus. I could have EASILY wandered the streets of Helsinki for a couple more hours but it wasn't meant to be.

If the opportunity presented itself, I would love to return to Finland.

Preferably from May to August.

Or December to visit Santa Claus.

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Until next time...