Throwing it way back today. With Ella’s first birthday coming up at the end of March, my wheels have been turning thinking about how we can celebrate our little peanut. I decided to dig back to Olivia’s first birthday party to remember exactly what the heck I did for her (mom brain? yup).
I know at this young age they are too little to realize what is going on. They won’t remember if there were decorations or what the cake looked like, but I’m also okay with accepting that this is part of my love language. One of the ways I show love is by trying to make things feel special for my people. I accept that it’s about me too, haha! We all made it through a year filled with change, and it wasn’t always easy, so let’s get excited about that. Also, I love the idea that one day the girls will be able to look back at the photos and see how much fun we all had celebrating how special they are to all of us.
I’m going to share some of my favourite parts of this celebration under the four categories: Something Smart, Something Sweet, Something to Make and Something to Eat.
Something Smart
Traditions. I like them. A lot. And I love being inspired by hearing what other people do too. I think they are smart because they reinforce the values of a family. In this case, it’s kind of a mom and dad secret tradition that the girls won’t get to experience until later, but I still think it’s a cool, easy, little thing that we can handle adding to already-busy birthdays.
When it comes to saving momentos, I’m not a hoarder or collector by any stretch of the imagination, but I do have a small box for each of the girls that holds those adorable baby keepsakes that are just too cute to part with. I have only kinda-sorta completed Olivia’s baby book that documents her first year – you know, all the photos have been taken they just have to get printed off and sorted into the book. I’m still working on it years later, it’s just one of those tasks that gets re-written over and over on the to-do lists.
Even with the unfinished baby book, I decided I wanted to start a simple tradition of writing a letter to Olivia on each of her birthdays that kind of summed up what the year was like, what her favourite things were, what major events took place – you get the idea. I found a birthday card to match the flamingo theme and we wrote our letter to her inside of it. We did the same for birthdays #2 and #3, so I’m thinking it will be fun to keep it going and hand them over to her maybe on her 18thbirthday…just a continuation of that first-year baby book. I have also heard some parents say that they set up an email for their kids and send them emails to tell them funny stories or memorable things they said and did as they grew up. When they are all grown up, they turn over the account so that they can read it like an online journal. Very smart – still considering starting something like this too!
Something Sweet
Monthly photos. I’ve seen so many creative ways to capture the changes from month to month. I was inspired by Carmen, of Carmen the Modern Mom, who used flowers in her daughter’s monthly photos. Even if you don’t love the monthly photoshoot, selecting a photo that was taken during each of the months is a cute way to show the subtle changes over the year. You can buy premade garland kits on amazon and etsy and I imagine many party stores and craft stores carry them too. I just backed each photo onto cardstock, used a hole punch to make holes in the cardstock and attached them with some matching ribbon.
Something to Make
Balloon Garland:
- Choose 3-4 different balloon packs (each a different size and colour). Ours were from Party City.
- Inflate them all. I used a helium tank for this project but probably would just air-fill in the future (except if choosing the very large 36 inch balloons that just take a really large volume to fill).
- Use a needle attached to fishing line to connect the balloons, by piercing through the tied portion of each balloon. I alternated shape and size of balloons and pushed them as close together as I could for a full look.
The size of your balloon garland will determine how many balloons you need. I looked at some inspiration photos on Pinterest and tried to estimate based on my favourite photo. At the end, where there were some small gaps or spaces to fill, I tucked in some floral pieces; flowers, tropical leave, palms… until it looked as full as possible. These wedged in and held in place. If yours do not, I have read that using a low-temp glue gun can help attach these to the balloons without popping them. To hang, I used a couple of command strip hooks that easily peeled off the wall after the garland was ready to come down.
Something to Eat
“A party without cake is just a meeting”
Julia Child
And the cookies that are as delicious as they are beautiful! A very talented former co-worker of mine, Linda of COOKIE COUTURE HAMILTON created these :
Thanks for re-living this special day with me! Off to plan something special for baby girl #2. Any suggestions for a fun theme? Let me know below.
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