First Birthday Party

I knew I wanted W’s first birthday party to be extra special.  We’d gone through a lot to have him and we’re just so grateful that he’s here and perfect.  I wanted his birthday party to be a fabulous celebration of his first year of life.

It was really difficult to decide on a theme.  I bounced some ideas off of A… music?  The Cat in the Hat?  Cars/things that go?  Nothing really stood out to me.  A liked the idea of doing a music theme, but that seemed difficult to me and I was uncertain.  Music did seem to make the most sense.  When I was pregnant, I’d listen to music every day during my drive to work and W would dance in my tummy.  When I got nervous because I hadn’t felt him move in a little while, I’d turn on music and he’d begin to move.  When W was a newborn, music would calm him down and help him sleep.  There was even a line from a song on his birth announcement.  Nowadays, if W is particularly cranky or upset, we’ll turn on some music and it soothes him.  And so it was decided – we’d go with a music theme for his party.

I also wanted his party to be colorful.  We could’ve gone with black and white – as in sheet music, pianos, etc., but that didn’t represent W in my mind.  He’s too bright and cheery for black and white.

I haven’t uploaded pictures yet and I think those will illustrate the party best, but here is a preview: invites resembled records, we asked guests to choose a song for W and created his own playlist (this turned out great – the songs were completely different, but represented W in some way), colorful table cloths, napkins, plates, etc., music note confetti, a birthday board with W’s stats, milestones, and likes, a music note cake, lots of assorted cupcakes, a birthday banner with monthly pictures, colorful balloons, and lots of food that we named after musical terms.  It all came together perfectly.

A’s parents let us borrow their house (so thankful) and we had about 25 family and friends over to celebrate.  We served appetizers, yummy pasta, and salad.  W was great and I think (hope) he enjoyed seeing all the décor.  He wanted nothing to do with his cake (not surprised since the same thing happened on his actual birthday).  He got lots of cute gifts and he enjoyed visiting with everyone.

I feel like I’m leaving a lot out, but I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day to celebrate my sweet boy.  It was exactly what I wanted and hoped for.