Benjamin Michael Eddy Jr's very 1st Birthday.

Last Saturday evening, there was a special celebration at Mimi and PopPop's. It was Benny's 1st Birthday. I'm not real sure where the last year has gone and how that little boy is one already...but apparently it's true.

Leslie went all Martha Stewart and carried out a pretty awesome train theme for the party, complete with "bubba gum" and soft train party favors, cute little train whistles for all the boys, and even different train-subject books for all of the boys! Note the little train banner with Ben's picture as engineer, and these cute little trains in the yummy cupcakes. (I was good - I only had a bite of each cupcake - one of Julie's coconut and one of Mom's chocolate). I was also pretty good at dinner (barbecue from Henry's Smokehouse - again, yum)...it was hard to refrain from eating a huge plate and/or from getting seconds, but somehow I did.



Max was tossed around at this party like a "hot potato"...but Chris and I were able to enjoy our meal without a baby in either of our laps, which was nice.










(that's Uncle Paul back there)



Ok, ok, on to the birthday boy:



He had the cutest little train shirt. Unfortunately you can't see it in that last picture, so I'll have to post this one, which Julie will probably hate because her eyes are squinty (sorry). Actually, it's really just one eye.



Benny had a lot to do at his party. He had to mingle with his guests:



find time to eat some dinner:



humor Mom and Dad for some photos:






entertain everyone with the traditional one-year-old-cake-destruction:











and open gifts:







Shew, that was a lot to ask of a one year old! But he did great.
If I judge this party by the three most important requirements, it was definitely a success.

Party Requirements:

EAT






DRINK




MAKE MERRY







(Why is it no surprise that Nathanael was taking charge of the Merry-Making?)

And, of course, no Eddy family gathering is complete until we have submitted the cousins to a photo session. I have tons of these, each funnier than the last, but I'll stick with a semi-decent one here:



(I can't wait until somebody has a girl that we can stick in the midst of this boy-ness!)

Anyway, great job Les and Ben - I predict that little Ben has some super fun parties in his future! Happy first year Benny!!!

Ok, and since this IS the Ludwig family blog, a few pictures of the Ludwigs at the party (we were actually there, honestly!)