I'm not sure how it happened but somehow my sweet baby boy turned 1 year old over the weekend. It feels like just a few months ago I was (impatiently) awaiting his arrival. He was 9 days past my due date and each of those days felt like a year in itself. Yet somehow here we are celebrating his transition into toddlerhood!Of course an event this big couldn't just be celebrated for one day. Go big or go home right? So the birthday celebrations started a few weeks ago with a cake smash photo session with Ang from Moment.us Photography. Whether or not you want to include a cake, I definitely recommend doing a birthday shoot. Babies this age are so full of character and we had so much fun! Plus, we got some amazing shots that I will treasure forever.
Not sure how to prepare for a cake smash? Here are two things I learned from our experience. First,
go in with no expectations and just go with the flow. Directing a 1 year old to imitate that amazing Pinterest pose you saw will only leave you frustrated and disappointed. Let them be and I promise you will get great pictures! The second thing I learned was to avoid red icing. I had heard this before but my cake had red and blue dots. Since it wasn't a lot of red I figured it would be ok but I was wrong. Our pictures still look great but J looks like he's wearing lipstick in some of them and he even left what looked like a bloody handprint on one of the crates! For similar reasons I wouldn't recommend chocolate cake or brown icing... enough said!
I chose to do the cake smash about 2 weeks before his actual birthday so I would have the proofs back in time for his party. I set them up as a slide show on the TV and they were a great addition to his special day.
The day of his birthday was a quiet affair at home but the next day was party day! If you ask my husband he'll tell you I went overboard in my planning. A few nights before the party, as I was getting decorations ready he told me "you realize he doesn't even know it's his birthday right??". I do know this but the truth is that throwing myself into party planning made me excited for this milestone. Otherwise I just wanted to cry because my tiny baby was no more... Yes, I know he will always be my baby no matter how big he gets, but he's growing much quicker than I'd like.
But back to the party; I chose a tractor theme and I worked with a few amazing WAHM (work at home moms) to get decorations just the way I liked. You can see links to their business pages below. The rest of my party supplies were from Micheals, Walmart or the Dollar Tree. All in all, they were fairly inexpensive but I love how they all came together the day of the party. I also used some of my husbands prized model tractors and some monthly photos of J as décor.
The party food was labeled with tractor or farm names such as tractor tires (oreos), nuts and bolts (bits and bites), veggie garden and fruit orchard. For dessert, my amazing sister made delicious cupcakes and of course no party is complete (in my books) without mason jar glasses and some delicious fuel... I mean fruit punch!
Although I am still having a hard time with how quickly my baby is growing up, we had an amazing party day. The weather was perfect and we celebrated my favorite little man with family and friends. There really isn't much in this world that is better than that! I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for us and all the new things J will learn!
Julie
Business links:
But back to the party; I chose a tractor theme and I worked with a few amazing WAHM (work at home moms) to get decorations just the way I liked. You can see links to their business pages below. The rest of my party supplies were from Micheals, Walmart or the Dollar Tree. All in all, they were fairly inexpensive but I love how they all came together the day of the party. I also used some of my husbands prized model tractors and some monthly photos of J as décor. 
The party food was labeled with tractor or farm names such as tractor tires (oreos), nuts and bolts (bits and bites), veggie garden and fruit orchard. For dessert, my amazing sister made delicious cupcakes and of course no party is complete (in my books) without mason jar glasses and some delicious fuel... I mean fruit punch!
Although I am still having a hard time with how quickly my baby is growing up, we had an amazing party day. The weather was perfect and we celebrated my favorite little man with family and friends. There really isn't much in this world that is better than that! I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for us and all the new things J will learn!
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| Party Animals!! |
Business links:
J's birthday shirt (tractor and a 1) was from Little Lily Bamboo https://www.facebook.com/littlelilybamboo
Banners, cupcake toppers, chalkboard poster and our invitations were designed by M&M chalkboard creations
https://www.facebook.com/mmchalkboardcreations
https://www.facebook.com/mmchalkboardcreations
Cake smash photography by Moment.us Photography
https://www.facebook.com/Moment.usPhotography
Also a special thanks to my fellow Stretchmark mommy S for taking amazing photos of J's special day.
https://www.facebook.com/Moment.usPhotography
Also a special thanks to my fellow Stretchmark mommy S for taking amazing photos of J's special day.
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