Nolan is turning one!

Happy Birthday my sweet baby Nol! There is something about that first birthday, I just love it! It feels like it is as much of a celebration for me as the Mom, as it is for my child. They are just so cute and irresistible at this age and it is so amazing to see the little person they have become in just one short year. A caterpillar party seemed to be a perfect fit and of course their had to be music. Nothing seems to bring a smile to his face and bounce to his little body faster than a song.

So here is Nolan's Very Hungry Caterpillar 1st Birthday Party...

The Cakes...



Lunch is served...
Check out this spread! My Mom and I got a little carried away. We just had to serve all of the food that that very Hungry Caterpillar ate. A special thanks to my Mom in this department, she really put it over the top with her ice cream cone cupcakes, cherry pies and mini chocolate cake.
Watermelon in January was a hit at the kid table.
Now that everyone has eaten, let the games begin!

Story Time...

The reading of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle with the help of our very own caterpillar puppet.

The kids got to choose a play food item from the basket to feed to the hungry caterpillar puppet when we read about that food in the book. With Chris running the puppet it got a lot of laughs.


The Caterpillar Parade...
Each child donned their caterpillar antennae hats, chose a musical instrument and marched along in our very own caterpillar parade.

Musical Leaves...



After all of that marching, the hungry caterpillars needed to munch on some nice green leaves in a game of musical leaves. In our version, nobody got out, the leaves just kept getting more and more crowded until we were all standing on one leaf.
The Caterpillar Cocoon Hop...


The starting line.
And they're off!


The Butterfly Dance...
Everyone broke out of their cocoons and spread their wings in a scarf butterfly dance. Even Nolan is pretty good and shaking that scarf!

Then we turned them loose for a little free time down in the basement...

Hunting for caterpillars in the grass. They could use their tweezers and magnifying glasses to find the caterpillars and collect them in their bug catchers. There was also a caterpillar tunnel and tent set up for the kids to crawl and play in.

A game of Elefun. The elephant blows butterflies from his trunk and everyone catches them in their butterfly nets.

Present Time...

I noticed that Nolan seemed to love music so I talked Chris into letting us sign up for music class justifying the price by telling him it would be Nolan's birthday present. It turns out, it was a great gift for the boys as well as myself! All three of us love going together and look forward to it all week. We discovered that Nolan has pretty darn good rhythm too. Both he and Henry love to drum on the drums when it is time to choose an instrument. Henry wants to play the bongo drums when he grows up. So in addition to music class, Chris and I gave him a drum that the two of them can hone their skills on. He got many other great presents from family too. Thanks everyone.

Cake Time...

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you...We got him all ready for a big mess, but he was a little reluctant to dig in. Such nice manners.

The Decor...


Oh and I must not forget to add that our star caterpillar was so excited about his big party that he took his very first steps right before the party started!



Thanks everyone for coming and celebrating this special day with us.

Autumn Leaves

Hyer Family Circus

Henry really got into character this year; growling at strangers and crawling around on all fours. He had plenty of opportunities to wear his tiger costume including both Grandma's Halloween parties, a preschool party, the neighborhood Trunk or Treat and of course, Halloween. He even broke it out for a Costco trip and to scare Dad a few times when he walked in the door after work. If you look closely you might see more than a few dirty spots because I could not keep it off him long enough to wash it. We had to stretch it a little to come up with a family theme based on a tiger given that he has been an animal every year so far. But the circus theme did seem a bit fitting since an average day at our house does feel a little like a circus and something tells me it is only going to get worse. Here are a few pictures of the festivities this Halloween season: