1. The 1-year-old. How is he 1? This year went way too fast. I’m so thankful for this sweet blessing that every night before laying him in his crib, I thank God and I take an extra second to savor the moment. The way he smells, his soft skin, his sweet breath, and his little body heavy with sleep in my arms. He will never be this age again. So I savor it.
2. The party. He had a pretty sweet birthday party. It was airplane themed (of course), red and light blue. I hung paper airplanes and balloons from the ceiling with fishing line and a small rock inside the balloon to weigh it down. Most of the decor came from his airplane themed room. An the “One” came from the letters hanging on the wall of his room that spell Owen.
3. The food. Since it was a cold dreary day, we had a soup bar (broccoli, cheese and potato, chicken tortilla, and turkey pumpkin chili) and the usual suspects: meat, cheese, crackers, fruit, veggies, Speculoos no-bake cookies, cupcakes (pumpkin and confetti). Drinks were beer, wine, punch (with an optional splash of vodka), coffee, and lemon water.
4. The party pooper. It was his party and he could cry if he wanted to. He didn’t have a very good time at his party. Mostly because he was tired from waking up from his nap too soon, teething (he has 14 teeth now), and he was overwhelmed with the amount of people in his house. He remained pretty well glued to me, Alex, and my parents but we were able to get a few grins out of him. And as the party came to an end and people started leaving, he got better. He’ll smile and flirt with complete strangers but he’s just not much of a party animal.
5. The kids’ table. We used our children sized biergarten table and put out party hats and horns, coloring books and crayons. You can’t go wrong with that line up. The table looked so cute.
6. The first year in photos. I hung a piece of twine and used clothespins to hang his monthly pictures. It was a simple way to fill a blank space and a neat way to see how he’s grown over the past year.
7. The cupcake smash. We knew he would be too overwhelmed if we let him dig into his smash cake in front of everyone so we saved that and the birthday song for another day with fewer people. (We had a full house for his party.) We gave him a cupcake instead. My little neat freak absolutely HATED the frosting on his hands and tried to shake it off. But decided he didn’t mind the taste.
A few days later, I took his 1-year photos. The lighting was less than ideal so I didn’t quite get the results I had hoped for. But it was still a lot of fun and I think I got a few keepers.
Sorry this 10 things post is so unorganized. Let’s just keep going with it and pretend I planned this. 😉
8. The cake smash. Our incredibly talented friend Megan made this adorable and delicious cake that was almost too cute to let Owen smash. Almost.
We started out on the floor but he didn’t want to stay in place so we moved to his high chair. Then he started to have fun with it. Until it wasn’t fun anymore.
9. The Owen chalkboard poster. At the time I had it printed, he had 9 teeth. On the day of his party, he had 12. On the day of his birthday, 14. The kid is a tooth factory. I also totally and completely regret not taking the glass out of the frame for the picture.
10. The balloons in his crib. Because why not. Everyone on Pinterest is doing it.
Oh baby. We love you to the moon and back. You are the best thing ever. Happy 1st birthday, my little love!