William’s Wild One

As it turns out, we really ended up renaming William’s party (jokingly) William’s Tame One. Ha! Let me explain.

Two days before his original birthday party was scheduled (June 25), we noticed he was a little fussy and not himself. He had a few tiny red dots on his legs, and a mild temp. Knowing that his party was in two days, and also knowing that I actually had now made it almost AN ENTIRE YEAR of not having gone to the doctor once with any sickness (only well checkups), I figured I could get a pass and be a little overly cautious just this once. As it turns out, he did have a minor ear infection, and the little bumps were probably just a little reaction to something. We got benadryl for the little bumps and antibiotics for the ears, and even though we were a little sad to not have quite made it the whole year without him getting sick, we were well on our merry way and cleared to go ahead with the party.

Until …. the next day I noticed the little bumps were worse.  And then a lot worse.  I was still doing the last minute pre-party planning checklist: flowers (check!), balloons (check!), last minute tidying (check!), but this was worrying me. Charles assured me that his little reaction was probably just getting a bit worse before it got better, and that he’d probably wake up the next day, party day, totally better.

Finally at 5:45 pm the day before the party, I called my sister Paula. “Do you think I should go back to the doctor? I mean this is just strange. Why would these little bumps be so much worse?” She said, it won’t hurt anything to at least call them and let them know the situation. I hung up and immediately called the doctor.  I explained the situation and said I felt silly for calling again since we were just there the day before but the red dots were worrying me and his party was the next day. She said, “well we have a 6:15 appointment, do you want to just come in?” We live probably 20 minutes away, and it was already almost 6:00, but I said “YES!” and ran out the door!

Within 5 minutes of being at the doctor, I texted Charles: “Party Canceled!!!!” It was hand, foot, mouth disease. It goes away on it’s own after a few days, and doesn’t itch or cause much discomfort, but it’s highly contagious (like chicken pox) and therefore he definitely could not be around the other children invited to the party. Side note: props to Charles for magically appearing at the doctor’s office within minutes of me texting him! 

So weeks and months of planning his party came to a screeching halt, and the morning of his party, the three of us actually sat around in our pajamas, enjoying all of the fresh flowers and balloons and decorations. His actual birthday, which was that day, ended up being the worst of his hand, foot, mouth, and he even took a 3 hour nap! It was sad, yet not so bad because he for the most part felt okay, and he got to enjoy some new toys. Also how sad can you feel when you’re surrounded by cake and tons of fresh flowers? (Cake that I’d already pre-allotted calories for might I add!;))

The good news is that we got lots of home projects finished up in the weeks leading up the party. Like, LOTS. Little itty bitty things we had been meaning to do forever, got done. And the other fun part is that he kind of got to have 2 mini parties, since we did a do-over a couple of weeks later with my family. (The day of the canceled party, it was just Charles and myself, and his parents came over for a bit.)

Hence why you may notice he’s in two different outfits in these photos, because there were two mini celebrations. The cookies were supposed to be favors for everyone at the original party. And since the party (well, parties) ended up being so small, there were a lot less photos and “setting up” than I originally planned on. I totally forgot to get a photo of my dad’s famous homemade butterfinger ice-cream station – it was so cute! And yes, there was enough ice-cream for about 40 people. We were all in a sugar coma this past weekend at the second party as you can imagine. We thought about re-inviting all our friends over for the do-over party, so I actually froze all the cookies right away when I realized we were canceling the original party. I was shocked that they were absolutely SO FRESH and yummy and soft still even after we thawed them out for the do-over party. After spending a week away at Sea Island for the Fourth of July however, we decided maybe we wouldn’t invite everyone again just because it seemed like the moment had passed and maybe it would be better to just keep it low key this go-round.

Everything went well at the do-over party with my family and William is feeling much better now! And the crazy part, did I mention I have a one-year old now?? Craziness. Cheers to year two!

 A Few Thoughts on Planning a First Birthday while it’s fresh on my mind:

• When deciding on a theme, don’t try to recreate the wheel. I decided on an animal theme because the nursery was already going in that direction, so we didn’t need to buy very much. I wanted everything to be green and gold to go with the invite, but then ended up having a rainbow colored inspired moment at the last minute, inspired by this Gray Malin shoot.
• This is probably the only party you’ll ever plan that’s timeframe is dictated by someone’s current nap schedule, am I right?? Plan accordingly. In retrospect I think it would have totally been fine to say “Time TBA” on the invite, and then texted everyone the week before the exact time, since babies tend to change their nap schedule right around the one year mark and the last thing you want is a cranky, tired birthday baby.
• Walking the fine line: everything having a personal touch vs. it looking like I just got out my glue gun and scissors. This one I struggled with. (Especially after seeing Cupcakes and Cashmere’s cute homemade party for her daughter.) In the end I decided the best way to have a personal touch was to ask our parents to make some of our all-time favorite desserts, homemade, fresh for all our friends and family. (Which they didn’t end up getting to enjoy but you get the idea.) My mom was in charge of her famous gooey cake, which I’m pretty sure I had at nearly every one of my birthdays growing up, but hadn’t had in years. My dad made his famous homemade butterfinger ice-cream, and also whipped up a new favorite, chocolate cherry ice-cream. And Charles’ mom made her famous chocolate cake, that is so good it literally gets sold at auctions for fundraisers! (With the reschedule, we were able to freeze the gooey cake and ice-cream and enjoy at the do-over party with plenty leftover, and Charles’ mom gave the cake when it was fresh to someone who had just had a death in the family.) If all of my plans had actually come to fruition I would have labeled each goodie like “Nonna’s Famous Gooey Cake!” but I didn’t actually get around to that!
• Photos: Maybe this is just because I’m a blogger and feel the need to overly-photograph everything, but I feel like there were a lot of photos I probably missed. If you care about the photos a lot, I’d recommend either hiring a trusted photog friend, or handing the camera to a trusted friend who takes good photos, who will remember to snap some pics. As the mom, you can’t light the candle on the cake, and take a photo at the same time. If you aren’t as worried about photos (like a normal person hehe), then at the very least, I’d make sure to have the high chair facing a window because, hello, you have to have good lighting! (Can you tell I’m a freak about photos?) If the highchair will be outside, I’d make sure there is a little shade for photos so the sun isn’t casting odd shadows. One option also is to take photos of the cutie with his/her cake at another time, maybe before the party on the actual birthday, and then any photos you get at the party are icing on the cake if you will. ;)

Credits:

Cakes: Publix

Cookies: Simply Swan 

Invitations: The Image Collection 

Cups and Napkins: The Image Collection

Confetti: Smiley Occasions

William’s Outfits: Beaufort Bonnet Company

One Balloon: Etsy but also available on Amazon

Surprisingly great source for lots of extras: Dollar Tree! A whole pack of balloons or plates to match your theme? One dollar. Fun favors? One dollar. Streamers? One dollar.

Food: We did BBQ, and bought chips & drinks at Sams.

Photos: Taken by me. Ones I’m in taken by my dad.

And if you’ve made it this far, here are a few outtakes! Thanks for reading!

Oh, and one inspiration shot for the party via the very talented Gray Malin because this post is already so long.

Happy Friday! xo