You had to 'BEE' there!

I realized the other day I'm a little behind in my 'weekly project' posts! I haven't put anything on here for a while, not because I haven't made stuff, but because I've been getting ready for Parker's birthday party. I was waiting until everything was done and I had a few pictures before posting. I can't believe he's one already!! Wow.
A couple months ago I started looking up birthday cake ideas for Parker. I had all kinds of cute themes in mind, but they're all for older kids and Parker is still too little. He wouldn't have a clue what was going on or remember any of it, so we decided to just do something baby-ish for his first birthday. I wanted it to be simple and have bright colors, so when I saw a picture of a beehive cake, I thought it was perfect! Kyle looked at a bunch of pictures and liked the bees, too, so that was the one I ended up making.
I went online to look up ideas and supplies for bumble bee-themed parties and was surprised that the results were pretty limited--and were mostly for girls. I didn't see any invitations I liked for a boy so I found some honeycomb scrapbook paper and cut it up, printed out the party details on white paper, then put them together with pieces of black ribbon. For a finishing touch I added a little bumble bee die cut (no, I didn't make the bees. I found them on etsy!)

I also ordered a few dessert plates with bees on them, then bought the rest of the supplies in plain black and yellow. It was an afternoon party so instead of a full meal we had snack foods--veggies & dip, fruit, cheese & crackers, chips and drinks.

And for dessert we had birthday cake, cupcakes, ice cream and Nanaimo bars! Yum! :)

It took a few hours on Thursday night to make the fondant bees but they turned out super cute! I made the cake on Friday...thankfully, since it was a fairly simple cake it didn't take too long to put together. That left plenty of time to ice the cupcakes and wash/cut all the fruit and veggies.
And since Parker and his little friends are too young for most party favors, I ended up making each of them a small stuffed bee toy! A little cheesy, yes, but I wanted something bee-themed to give out. :)

We had reserved a local park gazebo for Parker's birthday and on the day of the party we were blessed with a beautiful sunny day. We didn't have anything specific planned...just a time to get together and enjoy everyone's company.

We were amused as we watched Parker walk around from one person or group to another, like he was mingling, yet still in his own little world. :)

Finally it was time to cut the cake! Parker had his own big cupcake to get his hands into.

He wasn't sure what to do with it at first. He sat and looked at it for a minute. I picked up a small piece of icing and put it in his mouth thinking that once he tasted it he would dig in. But he still sat and looked around--guess there were too many people around talking to him and taking pictures and he wasn't sure what to do. Finally he poked his finger into it. Then he started squeezing handfuls of icing and cake, then he finally started putting some in his mouth. And he wasn't being dainty! He was shoveling it in by the fistful, using his arm to push in any falling crumbs. :)

So fun to watch! I'm glad he enjoyed his first cake!
He was getting a little tired after the cake but we wanted to try and have him open some of his gifts before everyone left. Kyle sat with him and helped him pull paper and gifts out of the bags.

We barely finished opening everything when the meltdown started. Poor little guy...he had a big day and he did really well with all the people and attention!
It was the perfect afternoon and we were so thankful we could celebrate Parker's first year with family and friends!