Toby's birthday party

For today's Motherhood Monday post, I'd love to share a few photos of Toby's first birthday party....

The party was not only a special occasion for sweet Toby, but also for Alex and me, as first-time parents. It was a life-changing, whirlwind, chaotic, rollercoaster first year...and we survived!
We decided to have a picnic in downtown Manhattan with the theme "New York City kid." Everyone arrived at 3pm and brought their own blankets. (Btw, aren't Anika's sunglasses awesome?)
Toby and Leo have been friends for their entire lives. Their birthdays are just one week apart. Whenever I see them together, I imagine them as old men, sitting there together, laughing, making their weird jokes.
We were lucky enough to collaborate with One Charming Party, an amazing party-planning blog and company, and they gave us some incredible ideas. We served bagels with cream cheese, black-and-white cookies and (spiked) orange juice for the grown-ups, and One Charming Party made adorable taxi snack packs for each child, including apple sauce, juice boxes, mini bagels and Cheerios. They also silkscreened the "I Heart Toby" T-shirt, which I loved wearing.
We made a banana cake, topped with a Statue of Liberty candle. Toby was transfixed by the flame and refused to smile for family photos:)
Chubby legs!
And attack!
Hula hooping it up.
After a long, happy afternoon, it was time to head home.
It was a wonderful day! Thank you to everyone who came. We felt so happy to have so many lovely people in our lives, especially, of course, our little man.
P.S. We also made thank-you notes from Pinhole Press.

See a few more photos on flickr, if you'd like.

(Photos by our friend Kenan, and thank you again to One Charming Party)