Oh my gosh, you guys. Do you know what? I LOVE planning parties. I LOVE hosting parties. I have been excited about my child’s first birthday since before the child existed for an embarrassingly long time. A theme! Cupcakes! Party favors! Food! Balloons! The gamut!
I should probably say that I am completely aware that Daniel will not remember this party. But do you know what? I have decided that this party is as much for me and Peter as it is for him. We’ve survived the first year of parenting! Being Daniel’s first BIRTHday party, I feel completely justified in celebrating the fact that I birthed a human one year ago.
Anyways! The party! Great reason to get the landscaping around the house redone! I’m sure at some point or another, I’ve shared that we are not really the outdoorsy types.We like to spend time enjoying the outdoors, but not gardening or mowing the lawn. So, with that being said, it shouldn’t be a big surprise that our landscape went to hell.
Blah, blah, blah now our house looks totally fab.
OMG can you even stand it?? I feel like when people come to our house now, they’ll be like “Wow! These people really have it together!” It’s a nice first impression before they really get to know what we’re like.
Anyways, party weekend! Obviously because my body always has perfect timing, I got a HORRIBLE head cold the Thursday before the party. Basically my head feels like it’s been underwater for the last three days. I have to gage people’s reactions when I talk to them to get a read on the volume of my voice, and I can’t hear out of my left ear. It’s been fun.
My cousin Kelly and Marty’s fiancé Kathleen came up on Friday and were a HUGE help to get everything ready.
After much theme deliberation, I decided on the “Uno” theme (thanks Nicole for the great idea!), and it was so fun. So fun! Daniel was so great the entire day. He’s such an extrovert; as soon as people were here and he realized he was the center of attention, he was like WHAT NAP?! He powered through the afternoon, went to bed at 7:30 and woke up at 8 this morning.
The weather was BETTER THAN I COULD HAVE DREAMED with clear blue skies and a high of 80*. Seriously. Just an overall gorgeous weekend with too much food, wonderful family and friends, and celebrating our sweet boy. Sigh.
Enough talk, here are the pictures. And there are a lot of them because I need to document what an awesome mom I was to my first-born to show my other children that at one point in life I had it together you only turn one once.
One more thing – my nice camera that I got for Christmas a couple of years ago WASN’T WORKING and I was about to cry. So excuse these nast iPhone pictures. I don’t want to talk about it.
Here’s a close-up of the banner with two of my favorite monthly pictures.
We kept the food pretty simple – very “summer cookout”.
It used to be SO MUCH EASIER to take pictures of Daniel before he was a toddler.
I had intel that Daniel was getting a water table, so I alerted parents to bring sunscreen and swimsuits. Still smiling at how much fun all the tots had at the party!
While everyone was sweating in the sun, Lindsay said, “Daniel should probably open his presents, because there’s something else that the kids would probably like.”
We are going to have a summer o’ fun with tons of outside toys and countless adorable outfits.
Daniel was SO TIRED at this point, but when he saw the cupcake, he obviously acted like he hadn’t eaten in 3 days. (Please note his wooden spoon that had to be on his tray while he ate.) (Also, the real reason that I was so thrilled about the weather was because the cake smash could be outside. Priorities.)
Ugh. What a fabulous day. FAB.U.LOUS. DAY.
Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate our little guy. We love that we have so many wonderful people in our lives!
So many emotions this weekend.
But what else is new?
Real World Romenesko 