The guest list was a mere 70 people, which immediately required finding a location to house us all. Luckily my country-quaint town has a perfect country-quaint community center known as The Grange. When I put this on my invites, some people thought we had renamed our house The Grange. But no, The Grange is our recently renovated community center originally used as a place for farmers to have meetings and family events. Super cute and the perfect size to host our soiree. For a hot minute I considered hiring a caterer for the party, but the super mom in me reared it's pony-tailed head and said "No! I will cook it all!! I can do it!!"
As I Googled "first birthday parties" in search of inspiration, I found lots of websites wanting to sell me supplies. Most of these party decorations were theme based - Thomas the Train, Dora, Elmo, and so on. But at one, Jon Jon hasn't really zoned in on anything to be obsessed over. And there didn't seem to be any blackberry/gerber puff based themes... so my search continued. Somewhere I read about the Winter ONEderland idea - and Bingo! A party was born! So right after Christmas I started searching for anything that had a snowman or snowflake on it in sale sections and bargain bins everywhere.
About 4 days before the party, with the help of my Mom as super-babysitter, I started to cook. And as much as it was a ton of work, I loved it. I even felt guilty that I used a box mix for the cupcakes, I wanted so badly to create everything with mommy-love from scratch. I thought somehow that Jon Jon would appreciate it. Which I know is ridiculous. But I hoped that he would feel my love pouring through all the food and effort for his party. At the party I think he certainly had some sense that it was a special day, and that he was getting even more attention than usual.
The day went by so fast, and reminded me much of my wedding day. There was a lot of planning and anticipation. But the event itself went by in an instant, and I felt like I didn't get to fully enjoy it all because I was so busy running around, trying to talk to all of our guests, and yet keep the party on pace. But if you know me, you know I love to entertain, and throw a party, so I was in my element. I recently read Tori Spelling's book Mommywood, and she talked about getting in deep planning her own son's first birthday party. She was so excited when she realized that it was like throwing a mini-wedding sized event, but you get to do it every year! This may seem crazy to some, but I totally got it. I can see now that I could easily slip down the slippery slope that lands you on MTV's "My Super Sweet 16". If money were no object, I could definitely be up to throwing a huge bash every year. But I also know that this is not how to raise a down-to-earth child that appreciates the small pleasures of life. So I made a small promise to myself to try and keep my party-planning-passion in check, and remember why a person throws a birthday party for their child in the first place.
At the end of the day, it was all the right reasons that made me feel like it was a successful party. I knew that the family and friends that came to celebrate with us, were there out of love and not obligation, because they truly are the important people in our lives, and especially Jon Jon's. He was happy as a clam at the party, and didn't cry once - a large accomplishment for a 3 hour stretch in a 12 month olds life. Even though he was passed around like a little doll, every new person that held him brought a smile to his face. I know he won't remember his party. But I will. And maybe I threw the party just as much for me as for him. I wanted to celebrate that we both made it through our first year as mother son team with flying colors. And I'm OK with that. There will never be another first birthday party and I wanted it to be an event worthy of my amazing little guy. So Happy First Birthday my sweet little man! (and let's start planning for next year ;)
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