Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The Birthday Party

It's not every day you turn one, so I figured Stella deserved to celebrate the occasion in style. I've never thrown a children's birthday party, so I just made things up as I went. I planned everything with a few facts in mind:

1. Most of the guests would be adults, but there would be children in attendance.
2. Stella gets a little overwhelmed when there are lots of people/lots of commotion.
3. Stella wouldn't remember anything about the party later on.
4. In spite of her not being able to remember, I would remember, so it needed to be awesome. Also, I had people to impress (not really, but it sounds more dramatic).

I decided to go with a Wonder Woman theme. This came about because I bought her a little Wonder Woman car a couple months back and she seemed to like it. I thought that since she liked the car and Wonder Woman makes an awesome party theme, it was the way to go.

I decided it would be best to keep the party pretty small and low key. This would make my life easier and would lead to less over-stimulation for Stella. We invited just family and a few close friends, so we got to work creating invitations to send out. For any sort of graphic design/computer work elements, I always describe to Mr. Frisby what I have in mind and then set him to work. He usually takes my vision and makes it awesomer, so it works out pretty well. The invitation is a prime example. I told him I wanted a picture of Wonder Woman on the front with some little saying and then a picture of the guest of honor on the back with all the details. Here's what he came up with:

Front

Back

Pretty awesome, I'd say. I did come up with the little saying, but Mr. Frisby did a fantastic job on these invites.

I got to work making a theme appropriate Happy Birthday Banner and Wonder Woman tiara party hats for all of the guests to wear.



We didn't really have any activities planned besides the usual opening of presents and eating of cake, so I figured the food better be worth coming for. Stella loves cheese, so I made sure we had cheese and crackers on the menu. I also added fruit with fruit dip, orange rolls, sweet and sour meatballs, and bacon wrapped sausages. And, cupcakes, of course. I found some little rings with a picture of Wonder Woman on them to go on top of the cupcakes. Maybe you can see them if you actually click on the picture to make it bigger. I think it turned out cute and I think the food table was a success.


For favors, I made treat bags filled with red, yellow, and blue Jelly Bellys.


A little while before the party, I had another idea. I decided I wanted to have souvenir photos for our guests. So, I described to Mr. Frisby my idea and my vision for it and asked if it was doable. He said it was and, as usual, took my idea and made it awesomer. We took photo booth pics of our party guests when they arrived and then added this awesome frame to them in Photoshop. I think they turned out pretty sweet.


Okay, onto the party itself. We all wore our party hats (okay, Stella only kept hers on for seconds, but she was super cute for those few seconds).



After everyone had their pictures taken, we ate food and visited. It was delightful. Then it was time to open presents. Stella wasn't totally sure what it was all about, but she seemed to enjoy herself.




After opening presents, it was time for Stella to have her birthday cake. Or cupcake, as the case may be. We sang "Happy Birthday" to her, which she seemed to find very entertaining. And then I put the cupcake in front of her. She then proceeded to pick at it morsel by morsel for the next 10-12 minutes. She was totally oblivious to everything else going on around her. She just sat there eating her cupcake. And then one of my favorite moments of the party happened. Most of the kids lost interest in watching her eat her cupcake after the first 10 seconds, so they just ran around and played. After Stella had been eating for several minutes and had gotten fairly messy, her little 2.5 year old cousin ran by and stopped to see what she was doing. At first he just saw that she was eating a cupcake. Then, it seemed to register to him that she was eating it all with her hands and being quite messy and he just said, "Oh. my. GOSH!" And then he ran off to play. It was awesome. And now, I will inundate you with photos of Stella enjoying her birthday cupcake.














And that was Stella's birthday party. I think for my first children's party, it was a solid effort. I had a good time, the guests seemed to have a good time, and, although she won't remember it, Stella had a good time. Success!

A very Happy Birthday to my sweet little girl. It was funny - when the party was over and the guests had gone home, I all of a sudden got very sad. I guess the party kind of symbolized her graduation to toddlerhood and when it was over, I realized that my baby had moved on. And it made me sad. Surprisingly sad. I really didn't think I would be so sad to see the end of the baby stage. But, apparently I enjoyed the baby stage more than I realized. Well, now the baby stage is over and we've moved on to toddlerhood. I can only hope Stella will be as wonderful of a toddler as she was a baby.

3 comments:

mommafriz said...

Scout will love the toddler food stage!!!

Tammy said...

It was a great party! Great first time effort Jenni and Jared.

Dalene said...

I say you can call them a baby until they turn two. I made up that rule when I bawled like a baby the day Zoey turned one. Happy Birthday, Baby Stella.