The NEW Mann Clan: The Very Hungry Landon

Saturday, the 14th, was the big 1 year shindig. We drove down to the River to celebrate with the family and Grandma Judy came too!

I had decided to do the Very Hungry Caterpillar from seeing the post on Party Like A Kid. It seemed like a simple theme that you could build on. A cake theme, serve foods from the book. Red and green. Pretty easy and low key.

I was really excited about the cake. So I made the head cake and Grandmama made the cupcakes. This was also my first attempt at cake decorating/arranging...so be nice. I borrowed the 6" pans from a friend at work. The antennae were black licorice(which is hard as hell to find). I then cut slivers to make the hair...which turned out looking like the cactus that Yoshi eats. Note to self for a Mario party in later years :).

Next up was the decorations. I ordered a VHC banner, cupcake holders & cupcake toppers from the Eric Carle Museum. They were cheap enough that I didn't feel like a huge waste but still good quality. I then typed out what the caterpillar ate on each day and got some clipart from around the web. I put them on little cards around the table. This was probably a bit much but whatever...didn't really cost anything. I then made grape and strawberry kabobs to look like caterpillars :). Also we didn't have anything to put them in so I stabbed them into the other half of the watermelon! O creativity.

Also to go a little "green" we reused the Woodstock biodegradable plates, cutlery & cups! I originally had bought all the stuff at the party store and started thinking about the investment we made down there for the stuff. K's Uncle bought about 150 place settings of Preserve tableware in lime green(so they matched!). I called him and he was like SURE and delivered them that day to us! I highly recommend them. Very sturdy and dishwasher safe. We did have one cup get all wacky in the dishwasher...but not too shabby. O and I saved about $20 bucks and I only used about 25 of place settings! Think of the other gatherings we have...whooo hooo. Here is a picture just for reference:

Well we had a lovely day down on the Pungo and so we used the community tables out on the lawn, pumped some music and chowed down. There was a nice breeze and not too humid...also we could hose down the high chair once we were done :) Even the doggies tried to hang around for some scraps.

I wanted Landon to have a shirt to remember the day so I did a simple iron on print. I used the border pattern from the book to make a big number 1 on the front. Simple and easy.

Then we let him at his cake...now time for a photo montage(cue 80's movie soundtrack):

He then got in the pool to rinse off and then PRESENTS! He racked up of course. He got a lot of books, a little musical truck, blocks, a drum, 2 tractors, a nerf gun(yeah thanks Sarah!), and, of course, bows and paper!

The big presents came from the Grandparents...surprise surprise! Grandma Judy bought him a giant water table. We are keeping it here at home and he is loving it...when it isn't 500 degrees
outside:

And then Grandmama and Grandaddy worked to refurbish Grandaddy's old Radio Flyer wagon just for Landon. That means it will serve 3 generations! The minute he saw the red, he was pulling towards it: