We threw Simon a big first birthday party over the weekend. Before I had kids I thought the big first birthday party thing was a bit silly, but we did it so... yeah, that's how it goes. Honestly I didn't care about throwing Simon a big party so much as I thought it would be fun to throw a big party and Simon is a pretty good reason to get our families together to celebrate.
I've also been thinking about the party for longer than I care to admit... especially when Lindsey asked me to pick a date back in the spring so she could take off work for it. So I picked September 24th because I like to do things after instead of before.
I was originally thinking about doing a monster themed party until I came up with this idea to do a Simon Says one. I could picture the invite saying Simon Says Come Party... but wasn't sure past that. I thought about it and then decided if I could bring in Simon game colors - red, blue, yellow, green - that the theme could come out like that. That's what I went with. Dan weirdly got upset that I didn't include him on the theme planning. Sometimes it's weird what he (men) decide to care about.
Our very good friend Kyle designed the invitations with some very loose direction from me
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I just pulled bright fun colors into the decorations and supplies. Plate, napkins, cups, balloons. I made cupcakes (boxed mix, I made one box of chocolate, one box of funfetti, and one box of marble). And then iced them in the four different colors (well my mom iced them, thankfully!) I made a special bigger one for Simon.
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| Cupcakes! |
For food Dan made hot dogs and pulled pork. We also had beans, slaw, party potatoes (which I totally forgot to cook until we were serving food), chips, Rotel Dip, veggie tray (courtesy of Janet), fruit salad and 7-layer dip (courtesy of my mom).
For drink we got bottled water, beers, and I made 4 different types of punch - one in each of the four colors. The yellow was simply lemonade. The Green was what we called Tropical Green punch which was ginger ale, pineapple juice, lemonade concentrate, and lemon-lime kool-aid. The Blue was Spiked Pineapple Lemonade which was lemonade container, frozen lemonade concentrate, 1/2-2/3s pineapple juice can, and a bottle of UV Blue Vodka (also may have added a drop or two of blue food coloring to get it to be more blue). Finally, the Red was Strawberry Peach Sangria. I followed a Tasty recipe I found on Facebook but it had peaches, strawberry syrup I made, a bottle of white wine, a cup or so of white rum, cut up fruit and a bottle of champagne. The Red was the most popular for sure.
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| Punch! |
Other projects for the party: I made a balloon wreath with the idea that we can use it year to year. My mom made a birthday banner for Simon with that same idea. I got pictures printed out with his monthly photo shoots and put them on paper. We also painted my mom's old highchair a bright blue. This is the same highchair I used as a baby. If/when there's another first birthday to celebrate we'll use it again and repaint it.
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| Wreath! |
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| Didn't my mom do such a great job? |
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| Laying down pics |
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| Face shots... people liked the second picture in the top row and how it looked like Simon was looking a the naked lady bottle opener |
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| Sitting up |
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| "Outtakes" |
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| The pretty blue highchair |
His party was so awesome. We had so many people come to celebrate and it was just the best. It was hot outside, but people still spent time out there chatting and hanging out. We just had the perfect time. I really can't tell you how great it was to have so many people that love Simon and us all together celebrating our guy. He got so many presents (too many really) and I'm just filled with love and gratitude for our family and friends.
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| Such a cutie! |
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| A roll of tape is a fun toy, no? |
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| Playing with uncle Keith's beard - this kid loves to touch faces. It was really great that my brother was able to come in for Simon's party and family time. |
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| This is Simon's excited face |
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| Playing with a card - in my head he read the funny message inside |
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| Simon got a PB Anywhere Chair... clearly he's excited |
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| Simon and my mom |
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| Did I mention the face touching? |
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| Tanner and Macy playing |
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| Simon trying out his toy truck |
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| Three cousin's playing |
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| Again with the face touching |
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| Love these kids so much |
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| Paper is fun too |
I thought Simon would really go for the cake smashing and he didn't as much as I expected. I think he still had fun and a good time with so many people. He has some separation anxiety but overcame that for the party pretty well and never seemed to feel overwhelmed.
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| About to sing happy birthday! |
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| What's this? |
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| ICING! |
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| Ok, I'm over it now |
Dan and I have just the best families and friends and we feel so loved. Everything about the party was perfect. Could I have done some things better - yes, but honestly even those things I didn't care about in the moment. Was I late with the potatoes? Yes. Did we have a ton of flies? Yes. But who cares! People enjoyed themselves and I had a great time mingling and enjoying Simon and everything. It was perfect and I honestly mean that.
