We made it…..one year.  My tiniest pal, I mean amigo, turned one.  We did it.  I started with 3 kids under the age of 3, survived potty training twins and made it through a stretch of changing nearly 2.5 dozen diapers a day.  It was time to celebrate and who doesn’t love a good fiesta?

I love a good party and a good theme.  I love my kids more than corn loves poop so when it comes to them, I do have a tendency to go overboard.  I know, I know – it is for a party he will never remember but you only turn 1 once so we might as well go all out.

I made sombreros for all the kids with their names on them for a fun party favor to take home and they also double as buckets for the pinata loot and all the candy crap and cookies we had for them to take home.  We had chiclets, gummy chili peppers, gummy sharks, chupa cups lollipops, chile pepper shaped cookies, Hershey bars with a fancy label and the best favor of all – mexican jumping beans.  It is amazing what happens when insomnia and google collide at 3 am.  Like I said, I love a good theme.  My amazing friend Mandy who owns thispretty.com made the birthday boys birthday shirt along with matching shirts for the whole family.

We had a taco bar and I cooked all the food myself so I did not have to pay for catering.  Damn, that was a lot of work and a lot of chopping.  I do love to cook so that saved me some in the money department but not so much in the sanity department.  I did ground beef and shredded chile chicken along with rice and beans for 45 people.  I should have broke into the Corona when the cooking commenced.  Next time…..although I have decided that when the twins turn 4 we will be heading directly to the local bowling alley where I do not have to clean up or worry about if someone will open up my medicine cabinet and see my super plus tampons or old hemorrhoid cream that I refuse to throw away.  Hey, you never know.

I also printed out the first 11 month pictures that I took of him and hung them up under his Abbey Road street sign.  It was pretty cool to see how he got a bit more buttery every month.  Ah Butters, you are my dream come true.

L.A. actually had the best time I think.  He told me last night Abbott’s party was so cool because “all of my friends came and he got a tractor and a truck to share with me and I ate so much candy that my tummy hurts a little.  But just a little Mommy, I could still have a lollipop after I brush my teeth.”  We have amazingly generous friends and family who brought him some pretty cool stuff even though I said “no gifts” on the invite.  I even managed to get 2 bottles of wine and a bottle of Tito’s vodka for his birthday.  Talk about a great gift!

So we made it Abbott.  We made it to one and you survived.  We all survived.  There are many times when I look at the clock and realize it is 10 am and feel like it should be 7:30 pm.  They have been times when I went to bite my nails only to realize I had poop stuck under them.  There have been times where I let my kids play with a box of maxi pads simply because they were not fighting and were quiet for 30 minutes. “Mommy, why are all the stickers the same?”  “Mommy, this looks like a bug, can you draw eyes on it?”  Sure I can.  I whipped out my sharpie and turned those pads into giant caterpillars and we stuck them to the ground like a line of marching ants.  Whatever works, right?

So thanks for hanging in there Abbott.  I could not love you more if I tried.  Happy birthday to my tiniest giant pal.  Here’s to many more fiestas, lots of laughs, a few tears, several wasted sanitary products and most of all, lots of love.  XO – Mommy