a wintry first birthday party

well, hello!  i hope everyone had a wonderful christmas.  both of our families live in town, so we were bouncing back and forth a lot from party to party.  luckily, we had a few days off of work this week, so there was plenty of relaxation too!

back at the beginning of the month, we celebrated O’s first birthday.  i cannot BELIEVE he is one already.  i feel like he was just born, and frankly am still trying to wrap my head around his amazing birth – it was a 5 hour, deliberately all-natural whirlwind that was the greatest experience of my life, and i’m so grateful to him for cooperating with my plans (i had an epidural with Em but was determined to go natural with him).  he was a little butterball, too – 8lb 13 oz!  i’ll share the full birth story someday, but i need to edit it down for public consumption.  for a short labor, it’s a very long story.  i wanted to remember every detail.  😉

this little guy never ceases to surprise me with how fast he’s growing up.  he still doesn’t quite walk yet (just a few steps), though i’m sure he could if he wanted to.  he IS trying to say lots of new words, signs “all done” and “more,” points to body parts (on command he finds his ears, head, nose), plays peekaboo, and throws a ball overhand.  he gives high fives, hugs, blows kisses, waves goodbye and says “daaaaah!” (which means “bye!”).  he likes to brush his hair and teeth, and to sweep the floor (a toy broom was his santa gift this year, and he loves it).  he likes most foods, all baths, and he adores his big sis.  he’s a super sweetie pie, and we love him a lot.

unfortunately, the poor guy was born in december.  being a mid-november baby myself, i know that the closer it gets to christmas, the harder it is for your birthday to feel separate.  this year, we did go get our tree and put up some of our christmas decorations before his party (which we probably won’t do once he’s old enough to realize it…unless he wants us to), but i also tried to stick with a more general “wintry” theme of aqua blue, white, and silver.  party ideas had been collected for months on my pinterest board.

i had the idea to hang snowball ornaments from our ceiling in the dining room with invisible thread.  the birthday boy giggled at them!

i made him a birthday banner, in blue and white wintry fabrics from my stash, and painted a letter O from hobby lobby with coordinating blue and silver.

for a couple birthday parties we’ve had, i’ve almost completely copped out on cooking and ordered pizza!  i’m the type that doesn’t want to stress out about food the day of a party.  i gladly accept offers to bring salad and chips with dip, i always bake a cake, but as for the main dish?  DELIVERY!  so worth it.  we held the party at lunchtime (translation: after morning nap and before afternoon nap).

i plotted months in advance to receive this bundt pan for my birthday after seeing it here.  it’s so pretty!  i made chocolate cake with cherry pie filling and mini chocolate chips mixed in, and topped each slice with whipped cream frosting.

the cake was well-received…

…as were some cupcakes topped with the perfect blue frosting that my sister-in-law made.  the bigger kids liked those, while O looked on (sorry buddy – i can’t resist feeding one year olds chocolate cake.  the mess is a must!).

we’re so happy to have this pleasant little fella in our lives.  he got to eat his first cake and received some pretty sweet toys and shoes (“shhzzzzzz”), so i think he had a great time too.  i especially feel good about avoiding “second kid syndrome,” because even though a lot of it was pulled together at the last minute (i appliqued his t-shirt at 11pm the night before), he ended up with a pret-ty coordinated-looking little party!  phew!  🙂

PS – did you see that the themes for this season of project run & play were posted the other day?  now you’re in the loop!  i am back to sketching and sewing furiously now that christmas is over.  so fun, and so nerve-wracking!  i’ll be glad when it all gets rolling next week, because right now it’s just all bottled up inside!  i can’t wait to share with you all.