Sometimes Mommy Bloggers seem to have it all together. They show bright and crisp before & after photographs of DIY organizational projects. They proudly breastfeed until their children are at least two years old. They are stay-at-home, exclusively-organic, cloth diapering Mamas. Each picture they post of themselves show a bright-eyed, perfectly pristine, skinny-minny face. And when they don’t have it all together, their drama is so interesting you can’t look away.*
If you haven’t already guessed… I’m not that Mama.
I was definitely not feeling like this type of Mama every time I thought about my son’s first birthday. As the days until his birthday crept closer, I started feeling worse and worse. Online, I have seen so many Mamas who threw awesome parties for their babies. Everything was perfect, the invitations, the cake, the presents, the decorations, the friends.
Now, I know that Cameron will never ever remember his first birthday. He won’t every care if we spend $5.00 or $5,000.00 on the party. He may stumble upon the pictures one day and hopefully they will make him smile, but he won’t feel much emotion towards that party at all.
But I still couldn’t help feeling bad that I was procrastinating on planning his party. I couldn’t help feeling like I needed to plan the perfect party.
Finally I got around to doing something about it. I figured I would get things done in little chunks so that it wouldn’t feel too cumbersome.
First thing to tackle: Choosing a date. Okay, that wasn’t so bad. Cameron’s first birthday was taking place on a Sunday, and so I figured the Saturday would be a perfect party day.
Thing 2: Location. This one was harder. My home? Not so big. We can comfortably invite two people over to visit. Make it three and it starts to get a little crowded. So where was I supposed to throw my baby’s first birthday? I certainly wanted to invite more than two people.
I settled on holding the party in the (very large) nursery at our church. It was actually a brilliant idea. It was a large safe play area filled with toys. And there was enough room to put chairs for the adults and a few folding banquet tables to hold the food and the presents.
Problem 3: Invitations. Seriously. I felt the need to hand make gorgeous invitations. They had to be beautiful and they had to fit in with my monster theme, and the had to have some sort of unifying colour scheme.
Yeah right. When it all came down to it, after I figured out that I would not ever be able to make invitations, I created a Facebook event and invited people. Yup. I’m not classy, and I don’t have any pictures to show you of gorgeous invites, but this busy mom was actually able to invite people, and that makes me happy.
I guess my point is, don’t fret it and be creative. I soon realized that I didn’t care if I threw the best party for show. I just really wanted my son to enjoy the day. That affected every single party decision I made: where the party was held, how long the party would last for, and how many people we invited.
The party was a huge success, even with the anti-etiquette Facebook invite. Cameron loved it!
Location, Location, Location!
Photos taken on March 5, 2011
Stay tuned when I’ll be telling you more about how to throw an awesome first birthday party without drowning under your own expectations.
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*I recognize that there is not a single Mommy Blogger who actually exemplifies this (or at least not one that I’ve read). But sometimes, I over-react.
Great post! Want to plan a 2nd birthday party for me?
It was lovely – fun to watch the babies and talk to new Mamas – and meet some of your newer friends and see some "old" ones (Bryn & Jocelyn). And you are right – the venue was really the best. Lots of room for sitting or standing or playing or chatting. It was ALL GOOD! Great to celebrate with Cameron.
I was the same way about Noah's first birthday. I wanted EVERYTHING to be perfect. We had it at the park near our house and despire the fact that we were in Florida, it was FREEZING. Turned off insanely cold and windy that day. The invitations were bought at Walmart. For his second birthday, we didnt' even have a big party. Just a few close friends and a night out for dinner. The fact is, they won't remember their parties at this age…and if Cameron is like Noah, the only thing he wanted was the wrapping paper. Hehe. Looks like you guys had a great time, though!
@ Shannon: Nope. Definitely don't want to. I party a year is enough! :)
@Mom: Thanks. I'm glad you could peek into my life a little bit more and see the people that are a part of Cameron's life. So glad you were all there!
@Courtney: Cameron's favorite things were the balloons. We could have just gave him a floaty balloon for his birthday and he would have been beyond happy!
We don't do first birthdays and after that our "parties" are for me, dh and the kids only. Generally it's just a special day for the birthday kid consisting of cake, their meal request, activities they want to do that day and usually some cheap homemade decorations if we do a theme.
No huge output of money and the stress is kept to a minimum.
@ Limette: That definitely sounds pretty close to stress free! Good for you guys! Growing up, birthdays were always a family thing, but an *extended* family thing. So it just seems normal to have all the family come together for my baby's first birthday.
I do like the idea of throwing a get together to celebrate my baby. Just like an awesome playdate! :)