Deere Noah: 1st birthday tractor party.

When you have two kids, you can't help but compare them. For Natallie's 1st birthday we hosted a huge party. I planned months in advance, hand-made the invitations, drove all around town looking for farm-themed decor and cooked for a week to prepare. So when it came to Noah's birthday, I had fleeting thoughts to just give him a high-five and a Popsicle but then feared that later on in life, he would resent this and hold it against me. And although it was a ton of work and neither Natallie or Noah will remember their 1st birthday at least I can rest assured that both kids had awesome themed parties. Natallie's first birthday was farm-themed and keeping in tradition, Noah's birthday was a John-Deere tractor theme. Come down Neufeld Lane and see...

I didn't know at the time but Noah was fighting a bacterial Staph infection during his birthday weekend, so understandably he was didn't want to be anywhere else other than on my hip. There were a few moments where I caught his usual toothy grin. I mean it's hard not to be happy when there are tractors and diggers everywhere right?!

 

Its also hard not to have fun when there's a bouncy castle and lots of friends...

And those sugar cookies that I painstakingly painted each by hand were worth it. The kids loved it. Dare I say, I may even make pumpkin sugar cookies for Halloween. What else am I going to do with half a bottle left of black icing?

 Then there's the cake smash. I made the exact same cake I had for Natallie's 1st birthday. A zuchinni cake with cream cheese icing with zucinni from our garden. I made a small smash cake for Noah and bigger 3 tier cake for the rest of us. Not sure how much of the cake Noah actually ate, I think he mostly just squished it in his pudgy hands.

And thank you for all the presents. Our house is now officially no longer a girl-toy zone. Noah now has a fleet of diggers, cars and trucks.

So back to the comparison thing. Here are a few shots of Natallie's first birthday vs. Noah's first birthday. Both looked ridiculously adorable in their plaid birthday outfits.

 Both loved ride-on vehicles.

 Both couldn't walk yet at 12 months but loved to 'walk' if you held their hands.

 and both loved cake-smashing.

But most of all, both are loved so much it is incomprehensible. Oh Noah, sometimes I just look at you and I am so filled with joy that it almost makes me cry.

Happy birthday my sweet precious boy. It makes my heart sad that you were sick on your birthday but praise God you are so much stronger than last time you were sick. We pray that we will be celebrating many, many, many more birthdays with you.