My baby turned one on September 20th! What a whirlwind of emotions that came with this milestone. I was on the brink of tears the entire week prior.
At first, I wasn't going to host a big shindig, for a myriad of reasons. One-year old's won't remember. They might be fearful of all the people. And this is pretty much the only time you can get away with not throwing a birthday party for your child without feeling obligated to invite the entire daycare/preschool class. But knowing myself, I knew I would always regret it. Mama was selfish because essentially, this party was for me. I kept a tiny person alive and well for an entire year. He thrived. He's happy. I'm so incredibly proud of myself. This is MY celebration. I'm going to invite all my friends, and dammit, there will be mimosas!
It also gave me a chance to exercise my relatively dormant creative brain. I got my craft on, designing the invitations, paper goods and favors. Bear-themed, because our little cub growls like a bear - makes me giggle every time.
We had a good number of older children on the guest list, so I designed some scavenger hunt cards to keep them occupied. I thought they'd be looking for the bear tracks all day, but as it turns out, a few kids actually found them - or so they said!
For favors, I made pom headbands (for kids and adults) with a sign that said: SAY CHEERS WITH BEAR EARS!
Using mini clothespins, we hung up photos of Bowie's first year on our backyard string lights. I got the square prints here.
Working around Bowie's nap schedule, we held the party in the morning, serving brunch and coffee. We set up a waffle bar with a variety of toppings: butter, maple syrup, peanut butter, nutella, my mom's homemade applesauce and an assortment of berries. Of course, I always forget to put out something when entertaining - this time it was the bananas and whipped cream - oops. The challenge with waffles is to serve them so they stay hot. My parents were kind enough to be the designated chefs, making the waffles indoors and keep them warm in our oven so there would always be plenty on hand for hungry guests.
My sister-in-law, Akiko, who hosted my lovely baby shower, generously offered to make the cakes. One sugarless, eggless smash cake for Bowie (using this applesauce / banana recipe) and one chocolate bear-shaped cake for everyone else. Hal made the bear-claw cookies at 12 am the night before the party!
Bowie had a gang of raving little girl fans!
He had the cutest look of amusement on his face as we sang him happy birthday. And to our great surprise, he didn't want to ruin his smash cake! We had to dig in with our fingers and feed him by hand - so funny.
Despite threats of rain all week long (with no back-up plan), it turned out to be a perfect sunny fall day. Bowie felt the love. He was a little tired, since he only took a 30-minute nap before the party. But this kid rallies. After the guests left, my parents stayed to open gifts. Then we put the boy to bed where he napped for a good 2+ hours. And so did we!
PS. Big thanks to my amazing brother, who photographed the event so I could live in the moment!
{Images by Christopher Bachmann Photography}
