A First Birthday Party

I am currently shirking my responsibilities in lieu of a more pleasant task; bragging out my baby’s first birthday. I mean really, who wouldn’t choose that over the tedious job of packing and cleaning? Although to be fair, I do enjoy cleaning more than most chores, but that’s beside the point! Given the sad tone of the last blog post I thought I owed myself a reflection on the joy of last year of new motherhood and Caidoc’s life. Very early on this year I decided to celebrate the year mark with a party, which I promptly started planning around the six month mark, yup, I’m one of THOSE people.

If you know anything about me you know I can be, er, rather, AM an avid planner (just ask any of my poor bridesmaids, haha!). Caidoc’s first birthday was no exception. I wanted the theme to be “Circus” not to be mistaken with “carnival” because we wouldn’t actually be playing any games, seeing that the guest of honor isn’t quite at the “following rules” stage 😉

A picture is worth a thousand words (which I could probably write easily since I LOVED planning this party) so I will use the amazing photographs of my sister-in-law, Anne Black, to shed light on the details. (You can find Anne’s work here.)

I don’t actually want to admit how much time I spent pre-making decorations. But I had a blast doing it!

 

 

I debated about how to convey a circus tent without breaking the bank. Here is what I came up with:

 I hand made most of the decorations, which made things cheaper and if I’m being honest, was how I prefer things since then they are exactly what I want.

I love making these:

And this was by far the trickiest thing to make since I had to transport it from our house to my parents without getting damaged. It turned out great!

Notice it’s arranged chronologically 😉

These were probably my pride and joy  of the decorations:

I had a difficult time with the food since I wanted it to be more of a snack and drinks thing than a full meal. With the help of my awesome mom, who was a wonderful sounding board and corn dog buyer, the spread was perfectly “on theme” and also provided more than just sugar and alcohol! Haha!

And of course the cupcakes:

There were also vegan cupcakes (for Caidoc) from PCC, I’m hooked! They were awesome.

These are Fruity Pebble rice crispies. I made them the night before so they would be as fresh as possible. I’m something of a rice crispy snob. I just love how colorful they came out! The trick is to do both regular rice crispies and Fruity Pebbles, too many Fruity Pebbles makes them taste weird.

Strawberry cocktails! Because what’s a first birthday without a little adult celebration?

Among the guests were Caidoc’s god parents, Brooke and Riley and their two daughters.

And of course, my BFF, Emily 🙂 (She is talking to Taylor, my eldest brother).

Once Caidoc woke up from his nap, the party started! I was SO happy he actually napped since he usually doesn’t sleep well anywhere other than home. And who wants a crabby baby at his own party? ( Of course, as my little sister Lydia pointed out, “Abby’s it is HIS party, he can cry if he wants too!) Luckily, he was an a fantastic mood, and looking quite dapper I might add 🙂

First came presents:

Then came CAKE! (Well, a CUP cake to be precise).

This is probably the most sugar he’s ever had in his life. Boy, did he LOVE it! He did hesitate to dig right in.

And then more socializing! A special thanks to my parents for letting me host at their house since my guest list got a little out of control for our apartment 🙂

The favors! I handed these out early since I ALWAYS forget to give out the favors when people leave. As is, pretty sure I missed a few people to give these to.

 

All the planning paid off, and it was so fun and I think went super well. Out of the parties I’ve planned this one went  Thanks to everyone who helped out and to those who came and celebrated with us! We hope you had a wonderful time.