Beach bash: first birthday party

So I gave you some insight about how I felt about Charlie's first birthday in this letter to him on his birthday almost a month ago now.  What I haven't shared yet?  His birthday party!!!  AH!  Shame on me.  But don't worry - he had one, it was a blast and I attempted to make it really cute and fun.

First off...my take on the first birthday party?  Well this was for sure something that Jimmy and I didn't align quite well on.  I didn't want to go all out like something on TV/pinterest, but I did want to make it special for lots of reasons.   In addition to getting together our village of supporters (aka family and friends that have supported us and given us so much love during this first year of Charlie's life) together to help celebrate our little man, it was also the last party in our first house.  I mean - part of the negotiation was keeping this house just long enough to have his party there.  And I'm so happy we had it there - after all the parties and wonderful times that house has seen, Charlie's first birthday was a great one to end on.  So what I'm trying to say is when I showed Jimmy who I thought we should invite - he pretty much flipped out.  And said multiple times, this isn't our wedding, this is Charlie's birthday.  Yes - I know that - but if I could have had most of our wedding guests there - just know I would have.  So I was forced to cut the guest list to a more reasonable number.  Dang husbands!!

To say we were busy this summer is probably the understatement of the year.  Moving, packing, temporarily living with your parents - with two stressful full time jobs, three dogs and a super mobile almost one year old - time was not on my side in going all out DIY on his party.  Once I had the beach party "vision", which really stemmed from his love of Sebastian on his Little Mermaid "Kiss the Girl" video that Charlie loves, I called  in the experts.  In my case, the expert was Victoria at RV Parties.  We both went to K-State and I have been involved with Pi Phi stuff with her mom and follow her on Instagram and just love her company's designs, so I emailed her frantically telling her my beach idea and she was so awesome and so quick to send me some great invite ideas.  I loved them.

  

After those were set and I ordered TOO many (yes double what I needed, was having a bad math day the day I ordered them...), we sent them out.  I'm sure people thought we were crazy because the invites had our Prairie Village address on them - but yes...that was where the party was.  We were closing on that house that Tuesday after the party (and just one day before Charlie's birthday), so maybe we were crazy and maybe it would have been easier to just have at my parents house - but dang it, I wanted to have this party at Charlie's first house and the house that all our family memories were in.  One last party and one last set of wonderful memories.  So crazy or not, we were doing it there.

So when the day came, my family helped bring stuff over and my dad borrowed some table and chairs from his school.  My friend, Lindsay, came over and helped me set up decorations and my sister dropped off the cupcakes she made - and this my friends is what we came up with....

His 11 monthly pictures were on display.  The cupcakes were just on cardboard boxes that were wrapped with wrapping paper.  I ordered the net from amazon and beach balls from Oriental Trading company.  RV Parties did the banner and cupcake toppers and wraps.  So cute.

I saw this idea for birthdays from a blog that I follow and just loved it.  I loved it even more because we had an awkward hole in the wall from where the TV mount was.  So this worked perfect.  And it was a great way to display some photos over the last year.

Then we had some birthday treats for all Charlie's friends that came too! (all from Oriental Trading company too)

These cute little bags of treats were in the buckets!

Here is a full shot of our living room with the party tables.

Then came the food.  Well, I usually go ALL out and have way too much food at every party.  I feel like we did the opposite this time and maybe didn't have enough snacks.  But the party was from 2-4, so it wasn't really time for a meal...so we went with fruits, veggies and cheese balls and goldfish.  My mom and aunt (in town from Colorado) took the lead on the food.  And they did amazing.  I just showed them some of the things I had pinned and they went with it.  Very grateful for their help!

Beach ball fruit tray

The watermelon shark!!!!!

THe attempt at octopus veggie tray

Beach balls (aka cheese balls) and gold fish

Our old house had a fabulous back yard.  Like I miss it every day.  So huge and private and just great.  With awesome grass.  Here's what it looked like for the party time.  Complete with our gift to Charlie, which was a water table - that he LOVED.

The upstairs patio we had tables and chairs for outside seating.  (Two of Charlie's teachers from school were so sweet and came to his party!  That little man is his teacher's son that is just one day younger than Charlie!!)

And what's a birthday party without a bounce house?? Haha.  Ok not really, but Jimmy's parents have one for their grandkids and Charlie loves it, so we brought it over for everyone to play in.  It was a hit!

And the fun began.  People arrived, eating and drinking ensued and lots of playing.  It was so fun to see all the kids playing.  How cute is Jackson with the water table?  (And check out Charlie in the background playing with mud...typical)

It's safe to say that Charlie liked his birthday present...

When it was time to open gifts, well that was interesting.  But I guess everything is with a one year old, right?  The present opening was interesting to Charlie for 2.5 minutes. At least he had some help from his cousins and friends.

My sister in law Hillary was so sweet to take some fun pictures too.

Finally - it was CAKE time.  Oh my.

And the birthday boy didn't quite know what to think!!

He finally stuck some in his mouth and gave it a try...

Since he was getting only blue frosting, I decided to let him try some actual cake too!

This sweet boy was in the front paying CLOSE attention.  It is his turn come October!

Family picture with a full face of frosting!!

My favorite frosting picture!

After the guests trickled out and we started cleaning up it became real.  That we weren't ever going to have another party at this house.  Never going to have another memory at this place that we called home for 4+ years.  Pretty crazy.  But instead of crying (which I did plenty of that later), we rejoiced at all the fun times.  And that this wonderful celebration of our little man and his first year on this Earth was the last celebration at our house.  

So we took a picture in front of our house.  Just like we did with our wedding party.

And after it was all over and EVERYTHING was out of our house?  Well, the birthday boy was all tuckered out.  For good reason too.  He partied hard and enjoyed his day.  Just as it should have been.

The day was so fun and such a blessing. So lucky to have all our wonderful friends and family that support and love us and Charlie!!!

However, birthday party number 2 will probably be a little more laid back - because I'm exhausted just typing about this.  haha.  But that's what we do as parents, right?!