We celebrated Brady’s first Birthday party the weekend before his actual birthday, which is on Halloween. I wanted his first birthday party to be a big celebration, more or less to celebrate that we survived the first year! The next few birthday parties will probably be a little bit more low key. The party was Fall themed. There were pumpkins for decoration, pumpkins filled with flowers, pumpkins filled with various dips for fruit and veggies. We had a few different pies. I baked some spice cupcakes topped with pumpkin shaped candy corns. For Brady’s cake, I made him a 3-tier vanilla cake with vanilla icing. I made a tiny little banner that said his name that was strung between two striped straws as his cake topper. I also made him a large canvas banner with lettering that said “Brady is One” that hung on our kitchen fire place/old brick oven.  I constructed a “1” made out of some of my favorite printed photos of Brady that was displayed on the large mirror in the dining area of our kitchen. My mom made a ton of beef chili that was a big hit.  Thankfully, it wasn’t too chilly outside, but just enough to get away with serving warm apple cider (when the sun was hiding behind clouds).  I’m grateful my mom came up from Katy a few days before the party to help. She helped with the tissue paper tassel banner (among other things!) that I used to display some monthly photos from Instagram that hung on our living room mantle.  The living room ceiling was sprinkled with helium filled blue and white balloons. (Brady enjoyed playing with these days after the party). I also made some tissue paper poms/balls that were hung from the ceiling above the food buffet. Hopefully I can reuse most of these paper decorations for future parties :).

In the back yard we have a covered parking area that I strung orange streamers from, as well as, a  colorful “Happy Birthday” sign/banner made of cut out letters. We borrowed some wooden little kid  chairs from Switch. We also used some of those tiny chairs for the photo booth area I set up off to the side. I’m so grateful the weather was nice, because the party trended to the backyard.

The party was mostly come and go, but we had a big “cake smashing” after we all sang Happy Birthday to Brady. We stripped him and set him in the high chair outside. He was so happy to be in the high chair and was performing for all the folks standing around watching him. haha. After we handed him the cake during the song, he almost wasn’t sure what to do with it. This was his first time to have real sweets. First he was gentle with it, then wanted to share it with a few people. Finally, he got into it and dug into the cake with both hands. After a few minutes, he looked like Einstein with crazy hair standing up in all directions from the thick icing. haha.

When we figured he’d consumed half his weight in cake and icing we bathed him in an old steel bucket filled with a bubble bath. Poor thing was freezing because it was hose water and not warm bath water. It made for some adorable/ hilarious photos, though. Afterwards, the kiddos continued to play in the back yard filled with FisherPrice toys, compliments of RaRa ;).  Brady had a little slide, swing, Cozy Coupe car,  and picnic table. The kids played with bubbles and sidewalk chalk. Brady was very entertained by dunking his entire arms into the big steel bucket filled with ice and water bottles. His poor hands were all red, but boy did he enjoy it! That boy is more entertained by non-toys than actual toys. Go figure.

Since I have the privilege  of photographing quite a few 1st birthday parties, I knew how important it was to have it documented by someone else. I wanted to sit back and enjoy all my hard work and preparation and have memories of enjoying my son’s 1st birthday party with him and our family and friends instead of running around trying to capture everything on camera. Therefore, I hired Christina to document the party for me! She did a wonderful job and I’m so happy I didn’t try to prep, set up, and photograph the entire party all by myself.

We are so blessed by our family and friends who celebrated Brady’s 1st birthday with us! We requested no gifts, but asked that if people felt compelled to give that they consider donating to his college savings account. It was a big hit! SO much better than a ton of toys. Although, the toys he did receive were just perfect and just enough. Soon we’ll be going through some old toys to donate.  What a blessing to celebrate our sweet, funny, vivacious little boy’s first birthday. We look forward to the many birthday parties to come!