Our Baby Boy’s First Birthday

If you have read any of the previous blog posts in this collection- I cannot believe this is the final one! It flew by just as quickly as it actually did for us.

If you read Months 6-12: So Much Fun and So Much Growth then you know I mentioned how emotional I was the closer we got to his birthday. And I think that’s the perfect place to start. Here we go!

---

The night before Easton turned one, I sobbed while holding him and getting him to sleep for bedtime. I was a wreck. Reminiscing on his year of life while holding my sweet little one was incredibly emotional for me.

Emotions at how quickly he had grown, and emotions about how proud I was feeling at how he had grown. So many emotions!

But after his birthday day of celebration and his actual birthday party that same weekend, those emotions eased and it didn’t seem to bother me too much after that to say he was one.

On the day of Easton’s birthday we had his big main gift sitting in the family room with a balloon and he was so excited to wake up to that.

Wyatt took the day off from work and we took him to the aquarium and for a little shopping too. Then home for a feast of steak and cake. It was the best day as a little family of 3!

Then his party was that weekend and brings back such special memories now to write about. He felt so loved, we felt so loved, and his party came together perfectly imperfect! It was the best day.

I want to share some things with you as you plan your little one’s first birthday to serve as helpful ideas but also things I wish I had done differently.

Also, if you’re on the fence about having a big celebration for your little one’s first birthday- that’s okay! I think social media and Pinterest can create this false narrative of what you have to do and I really don’t want to add to that simply because we did a big party. I just want to share things we did that we loved, and things I would go back and change if I could.

Regardless of how you celebrate- just celebrate. Baby, Mama, and Daddy just survived a whole year of new life, new normals, new routines, new everything! That deserves a celebration as big or as small or as intimate or as grand as you see fit. Just do something as your little family to honor the love and the work of the last year.

---

His Birthday Party

One Happy Dude was Easton’s first birthday theme. We could not have had a more fitting theme for our smiley boy than this! He is our real life smiley face, so happy all the time.

I had seen this theming on Pinterest, mostly with black and yellow colors. But I’m a bright colors kinda girl so I came up with our own color scheme for the party.

Bright blue, green, orange, and yellow. As well as black and white checkered print. And smiley faces of course!

The party came together perfectly imperfect as all parties do. There are always things that never shake out quite how you planned but the day was still awesome.

I feel like one thing I can realize now looking back is that I was such an emotional wreck planning and doing things for the party I was definitely using the party to help me cope. Which I think is a totally good thing, but also caused me to overthink every little thing. And I’m already an over thinking perfectionist.

I put so much pressure on this party so I wouldn’t have to deal with my own emotions and I carried way too much. Looking back now I feel like there was less I could’ve crafted and made myself and simply purchased instead, or if I did make the banners and things again I could’ve made them way simpler. I enjoyed making what I did for the party, but I bit off way more than I could chew when there was an easier way. Emotions and anxiety are tricky like that.

Sometimes it feels like if we can fixate on something else we can avoid having to deal with what we’re actually feeling. I just wanted the party to be so perfect for him because he was so deserving. He’s the best little baby and we wanted to celebrate him so incredibly big.

I wanted to share some special ideas we did for his party in case you’re looking for any inspo for your little one’s first birthday or really any birthday party.

The first thing I want to share is something that was really special. We had a Bible that we had people highlight their favorite verse in and if they wanted to write their name and a little message next to it they could. And now he has this Bible that he will get to keep and look back on and see the verses that the people he loves highlighted for him.

I have done this in the past at a bridal shower and I thought it was really cool, so we decided to do this for him for his first birthday and everyone loved the idea. It was so cool to see people really putting thought time and effort into which verse they were going to highlight for him.

One thing I did that I thought was super cute, but was kind of a fail were the party favors for all the kiddos there. I got little sunglasses and I hot glued smiley face beads onto them. Unfortunately, my hot gluing skills were not up to par and most of the smiley face beads ended up falling off and then I was so worried about Easton and a couple other of the really little ones putting them in their mouth. So the party favors for the kids were a fail but nonetheless a cute idea. If you maybe have better hot glue gun skills than me or just buy them premade ready to go then you know that they’re much sturdier.

Another thing to consider is if you aren’t having a party at home and having it someplace else is planning out how to decorate with what you’re allowed to hang or do. We held his party at a local township building and it was the perfect size and space for us. I knew I wasn’t able to stick things to the wall directly but there was cork to hang things from the top so that we could still hang things from that. Brilliant right? What I didn’t think through were the banners that I had put so much work into couldn’t hang how I had planned them to and that was a last minute ‘oh no’ moment. And also I had out a lot of work into the banners only to not be able to hang them correctly. So a definite bummer! But that’s where the perfectly imperfect comes in!

The thing I was most excited about for his party- that came together amazing- were his cupcake toppers made with little pictures of his face in party hats!!! This is something I want to do for every birthday party we ever have for him. So cute and so special!

My mom- our family’s cupcake and cookie queen- made all these yummy desserts that just made the whole party even cuter!! I feel like balloons and a dessert table are two things that can totally bring a party theme to life!

The big balloon arch I made was one of my favorite parts because it was just so big and colorful! I tried a new method to make it that my friend had found on TikTok to make the balloon arch, and it was full, and it was huge, and it was great, but it was very heavy. And so as the party went on, the arch started to slowly lower in the middle, which was fine, except for it covered the ‘one happy dude’ display that I had in the middle. So that was kind of a downer but again it was still a beautiful and perfect party.

I just wanted everything to be too perfect and in reality there is no such thing. Like I said I was so emotional- I wasn’t in a mindset that I could handle any error or anything going any differently than the vision in my head. Again, anxiety and emotions are weird like that.

His birthday party is one of my favorite days to look back on because it was so full of love and joy. And that had nothing to do with decor, balloons, or favors. It’s all about the love and relationships we had built with all our people there! And that’s what I will always remember over these minor little ‘fails’.

I hope that no matter what you do to celebrate your baby turning one, it’s a special memory you’ll remember forever. Baby, Mama, and Daddy all deserve to feel loved and celebrated after an incredible year of life together!!

Lord I pray for everyone in the midst of planning birthday celebrations. Let them look to You with gratitude for the blessings of the last year, and for blessings to come in the next. Lord I thank you for the gift of celebration, joy, laughter, family, and friendship. I pray every birthday party can be joyous knowing it’s all in celebration of Your handiwork. Please be with the mamas feeling heavy emotions- help them to feel your loving hand on them at this time. Thank You Lord for these babes and the gift of life. Amen.

All the love,