We Survived the First...Birthday Party

When Brandon proposed, I immediately felt overwhelmed with planning a wedding. Florist, cake, caterer, venue, band, and the list goes on and on. Y'all know I'm all about the to do list, but that was just too many things to add to my list. That's one of the many reasons that we chose to have a destination wedding. Luckily, I got to live vicariously through my sister who did put all of those things on her to do list and pulled off a fantastic wedding. Enjoying her local wedding didn't make me regret having a destination wedding and I'm glad I got to experience both, but the thing I really missed because of the destination wedding was the pride of pulling off such a big event. I mean technically I did pull off a great destination wedding that still had all traditional things flowers, music, cake, band, etc., but all of my planning took place via email, so it did not have a high level of difficulty.

Here's a picture of John Mark and the beautiful bride:

Also, I have to share this one too:

Anyway, back to the point...when I started to think about John Mark's first birthday, I almost felt like bailing and just doing a family dinner at a restaurant or something easy. I just get overwhelmed with multi-step projects. There's nothing wrong with going with an easy option (and you can't do something big for every event), but sometimes I get mad at myself for choosing the easier route just to avoid getting overwhelmed. So I decided that I would really put some effort in throwing a good birthday party to celebrate John Mark's first year (and our surviving it!).

Here are some pictures of the venue and decorations:

 

The green punch was delicious! It matched better than I could've ever planned :)

A mom of one of the students in my class made the smash cake. Isn't it adorable?

The party really went well, but the one thing I regret is not having more time to get everything decorated. We rented the Hoover Lake House and they have a strict time schedule. I felt like I was on an episode of Chopped and the clock was counting down. We only had one hour to get everything decorated, arranged, and prepared. I couldn't have done it without my mom, her husband, and this sweet girl. Seriously...

When everyone arrived, we socialized and chatted. We had thirty guests and 5 babies. It was so fun seeing the babies interact with each other (well, kinda). As you can see, John Mark likes to mess with other kid's faces.

John Mark & Parker (17 months)

John Mark & Nathan (7 months)

 I love this one. It looks like John Mark is telling Nathan something really juicy.

 John Mark & Charlie (15 months)

 Taking pictures of one baby is pretty hard, but getting two to look at the camera at the same time is a lost cause...

Of course, we can't forget Barrett & Katelynn Rose. I wish we'd gotten a picture of John Mark with them, but at least I got their beautiful families:

Since the cake smash we did with our photographer didn't go super great (he was really fussy and so not into it), I decided to do another one at the birthday party. I think he enjoyed this one much more (it was room temperature as opposed to the cold buttercream in the one I made). I was very happy with how his cake turned out, but I'm wondering if it would've gone better if the buttercream hadn't been cold (take note, new moms!). 

We got some great shots...so many it's hard to choose!

After the cake smash we decided to open presents. This was an aspect of the party that had a lot of thought put into it. I'd read online that you shouldn't open presents at kid parties because they quickly lose interest and the adults don't really want to watch that. I was very worried about how he would act (he is way more temperamental these days than he has been in the past) and I didn't know if he could handle all that stimulation. At the same time, though, I wanted to honor all the guests and their thoughtful gifts. After much thought, we did decide to open presents (Brandon and I with a little help from John Mark). We are blessed with generous friends who really made us feel special. John Mark is a very loved little boy!

Here's some of the aftermath at our house. We are still trying to figure out what to do with everything!

He's pretty much played with everything (and loved it all), but here is Daddy's gift to him. He figured out how to work it today:

The party really was a lot of fun even though it felt like a complete whirlwind. I learned two lessons 1) If you have it somewhere other than your house, allow yourself plenty of time to set up (an hour is not enough) and 2) Assign someone to take pictures. With all the chaos, it's hard to make sure that all the pictures get taken that you want. Next time, I'm gonna take a photo list (like you do at a wedding) to make sure I don't forget anything or anyone! Here are some photos of most of our other guests. If you're not pictured here, I am SO sorry!

We are so grateful for all the great company yesterday. I know it's a day we will look back on fondly for many years to come. I almost can't wait until next year because I know he'll be old enough to enjoy it...and maybe open his own presents!

Thanks to everyone who helped make the day so memorable! Next year we just might have a destination birthday, so start saving up for Mexico!