A travel and lifestyle blog

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Baby Eli's 1st Birthday Party



Planning your baby’s first birthday can be a both fun and daunting experience all rolled into one. Invitations, cake, decorations and entertainment are just some of the details I started thinking about a couple of months before his birthday.  I kind of knew that I wanted to splurge since I figured this was a very special day for us as a family. I know a lot of parents say babies aren’t going to remember their first birthday, which is true. So why go all out? I think for me, it is not only a celebration for baby but also mom and dad. We’re celebrating one of the biggest life changes and adjustments that we’ll ever experience. Becoming a parent and surviving the first year is a big accomplishment and what better to celebrate that then a party surrounded by all of your family and friends? 



       I began thinking of a theme for the party. Baby Eli always loved watching Disney’s short film “Lava”. My husband and I started saying “I lava you” every time we put him to bed, and sooner or later the saying just stuck. The rest of our family began to say “I lava you” as well. So, when we started to think of a theme for his party, it seemed only natural to incorporate the Hawaiian decorations and add a little lava in there too. It also didn’t’ hurt that our backyard has a  very tropical setting.






        We were actually planning to have a pool party, but of course, nature has its way of getting in the way. The day of baby Eli’s party was the only day it rained in months. I tried not to get discouraged and my sweet sister helped keep my spirits up.  Luckily, I had a plan b up my sleeve and came prepared with plenty of games to entertain the kids. We hired a bubble person, which I highly recommend for parties since it keeps all the kids engaged and occupied. We also had a bounce house, piƱata, limbo and hula hoops for them to play with.






        If there’s any advice I can give to mom’s planning their first birthday party, I would say to work hard to plan the party, then just try to let go and enjoy it. One way you can do this is by hiring a photographer. Of course it can be pricey, but shop around and you would be surprised that some are quite reasonable and offer quality photos. This was great because I didn’s have to worry about missing out on enjoying the party and being in the moment with family and friends. I knew I was going to get great pictures. I also, highly recommend hiring a taco man or caterer. A taco man is pretty reasonable as far as pricing goes as well. Keep it simple, so your not worried about serving people or the food getting cold. It’s totally worth not having the insanity and stress it can cause. 




         I rented kids tables and chairs and decorated them with greens, coconut cups, and pretty Hawaiian themed plates, which the kids loved. I also had a cascading balloon arrangement which added so much color to the cake table. We lit some tiki torches that we used outside, which were great for the Hawaiian tropical theme we were going for. I found most of my decorations at oriental trading company, which was very reasonably priced, and a few things on Amazon and Etsy. My sister helped me with some of the flower arrangements for the day, which all came together pretty well. 


            Knowing and accepting that the party isn’t going to turn out exactly as I planned really helped put me at ease. The show must go on rain or shine, and even though it rained, the party still turned out great!
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Sunday, November 4, 2018

Our Little Surprise


   My baby boy is officially going to be a big brother. He might not look too thrilled in these photographs, but I'm sure he'll get used to it and love his roll eventually. We knew we wanted a brother or sister for little Eli, but the news still came as somewhat of a surprise to us since we didn't really plan on having two this soon. Yet, it has genuinely been a blessing for us, and we are soooo excited.  


   My husband and I had an amazing surprise party for both our pregnancy announcement and gender reveal with our son. It was so exciting to see the look on our family's faces when we revealed we were expecting. Some were confused and some were immediately excited. It was the perfect surprise pregnancy and reveal party all rolled into one. 
  For the gender reveal, We first tallied up all of the boy and girl guesses on a chalkboard and used confetti canons to reveal the gender.  It was so spectacular. Tons of blue confetti surrounded us. We were all over the moon happy. 
  This time around, we still wanted a gender reveal and we wanted to make the experience special, but we also wanted to be low key. I had the idea of having a photographer capture our pregnancy announcement and gender reveal at our home so that it is still a special day without being a big party. 
   My husband loves to play golf, so I thought this time around he could hit a golf ball in our backyard that exploded into pink or blue smoke. I found gender reveal golf balls on Amazon for 10 bucks.  It was so easy and convenient. I called a family friend who is a photographer and he was more than happy to help capture this special day for us. He was actually the first to know the gender of our baby. We slipped him a little envelope. He gave us the appropriate golf ball and poof! We found out we were having a girl!




      We were so excited to find out baby Eli was going to be a big brother to his sister. My husband wore pink and I wore blue to show what we thought we were having. It was such a sweet moment. 



   I also bought smoke canons for some nice pink background photographs. I would definitely recommend a gender reveal if you are thinking about it. You can get creative and do whatever you want with it. You can make it big and grand or small and low key. Either way, it will be an awesome experience for you and your family.  







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