I am not exaggerating when I say that I have been planning Liam's birthday party since around November. I knew we could not have it at home a) because our house is too small to entertain the 40 people who ended up attending (There were 60 invitees) and b) that sounded incredibly overwhelming and stressful. Therefore, I began scouting, researching and calling locations early as I wanted to find a kid-friendly venue relatively close to the house with enough room, tables, etc. I also wanted for there to be some sort of activity so that the kids would be entertained for a half hour or so at least. The fire house won out. Once I decided on the fire house, the theme became obvious and apparent and the planning began... It was a great party but here is what I learned about throwing a baby a party. Hopefully this will save some other new mom out there some trouble.
One year olds don't really care about their birthdays...
at all. I knew, of course, that he wouldn't know it was his birthday or his party. I knew that the party, in many ways, was for Daniel and I. BUT I also allowed myself to become very stressed and crazy over this party and Liam spent 90 % of it playing on the floor with his cousins. To him, it could have been any other family gathering. He didn't wear the cute fire hat for more than 2 minutes. He didn't notice that his cake looked like a fire truck. He didn't really eat any of the food and he passed out during the fire house tour. Daniel and I opened his presents for him. He ate probably four or five bites of cake and then Daniel thought he looked a little sick so he took it away... at which point Liam simply smeared the frosting left on his hands on... everything. His favorite part of the day, I am pretty sure, was the balloons.
If I had the party to do over I still would have lots of food, would have made sure there was an activity for the kids and probably would have bought the favors, the hats, the precious personalized birthday shirt and... well... everything else... but I would not have laid awake nights worrying about any of it. So what if the tortilla chips had run out or if there had only been THREE flavors of cupcakes instead of 4 or, heck, just one!? I mean, really, would anyone have noticed? I know the most important person there (Liam!) surely would not have. My husband assures me that some day he will care; when he looks back at pictures he will be appreciative of all of the trouble we went to. I like to think so but I am not sure I have ever seen pictures of my first birthday... if I have, I couldn't tell you anything about them. My first birthday party was really for my parents just as Liam's was for us.
So, here's my vow for Derek's first birthday party next June/July - I will not be so crazy about it and it will still be awesome and everyone will have fun!!!!
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