First birthday parties

Well, it may not be a holiday per se, but any parent would probably agree that birthdays are somewhat of a personal holiday for each person! We just survived our first birthday party for our son! That being said, it was exhausting! Who would have thought that a party where there were no games to plan, no party favors to put together, and no kids actually crying for more presents would be so tiring? Without the help of family, I would probably still be recuperating from the 2-hour party! This is how it all went down...

Friday morning I woke up to the sounds of sleet. Not a good sign since I had wanted to finish running errands for the party and go up to the church to rearrange tables and chairs. I wanted to make sure there was plenty of floor space for the babies to crawl around in - so they wouldn't be underneath chairs and all that. (Like you can really keep them out of the places you wish they wouldn't go...) Anyway, I got lucky and the weather - and our driveway - cleared up around 2-ish, so I was able to get out after all. After dinner, my parents went with me to move furniture and hang up the few decorations I did break down and get after I realized that stark white walls would not do for a birthday party. However, after I saw how pitiful my two little "Happy 1st Birthday" banners were, I promptly went home with grand ideas of making more decorations. HA! (Ask me how that went later...)

Back at the house, my parents came in and helped cut of the cheese into cubes for the cheese tray, cut up vegetables for the veggie tray, and make a list of all the things we had to do tomorrow morning. Fortunately for me, my mom agreed to do most of the running, so all I had to do was run back to the church to set up and sweep and mop the floors. Unfortunately, my mom forgot to leave the church keys for me, so I was late getting to the church. It took a lot longer to do the cleaning than I had anticipated, and by the time I was done and got home, my in laws were here from out of town. This turned out to be a good thing though, since I had gone to the church in my pj's and slippers - who was I going to see? - and still needed to shower and get dressed before I was supposed to meet my sister back at the church a half-hour before the party started.

When I got back to the church, my sister, her husband and her two kids were already there, and they helped me get the buffet table all laid out. Aside from keeping her 1-year-old out of the cupcakes, it went really well! My parents arrived soon after with balloons and more food, and shortly after that, the first party guests (my uncle and his family plus my grandmother) arrived. It was pretty awkward for the first little bit - for about half an hour it was just us and the birthday boy was getting cranky (he hadn't had a nap!). He took his bottle and laid down in the floor with it, but soon got into the spirit of things playing with his younger cousins.

About 2:00, people started showing up, and things really got rolling. There wasn't anything specific going on, but it was nice to have people milling around, visiting and eating. We had coloring pages and crayons for the older kids, and since we were at the church, there were the baby and toddler rooms with toys for the kids who didn't want to stay put. We eventually broke out the cake for the birthday boy - who to my dismay did not want anything to do with messing in the icing. So much for having fun pictures to show off years later to embarrass him about how messy he got with his first birthday cake! I got more icing on me trying to feed it to him than he did on himself... He would only eat it if I cut off little pieces with my fork, and even then he managed to stay nice and neat. Go figure!

Opening presents came next. Surprisingly, he has a pretty good grasp on that for a one-year-old. As long as you get the first strip of paper torn for him he pretty well understands to keep pulling and there will be something fun underneath. That and he had the help of his 4-year-old cousin! There were presents and presents and more presents! If we ever have any more kids, we won't ever need another toy! Just diapers, wipes and formula for us please!

By the time the party was over, we all needed a good nap. My husband and his parents took our tired little boy home while I stayed behind with my parents and loaded everything back up. Somehow it always seems like more work putting it all away than unloading it all. By the time I got home, I took some Tylenol and laid down for a nap myself!

All in all, the party was a big success, and I'm so glad we did it. I do wish we had some good photos of him playing in the cake, but I guess we'll have to settle for our neat, clean baby cake photos! Yet, after all the work for putting on the party, I can't help but think that a party at Chuck-E-Cheese doesn't sound so bad after all! No set-up and no clean-up. Hmmmm, sounds good to me!

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First birthday parties

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