Avery's Birthday Party Recap

You know when you get on Pinterest and you browse other people's blog posts about their child's perfect birthday party and how everything was completely awesome?  Yeah, my kid's party wasn't like that.  I had spent MONTHS agonizing over and planning this party.  I thought of every single tiny, minute little detail.  I wanted everything to go perfectly.  The reality was much, MUCH different.  It seemed like everything that could go wrong, did.  It rained.  The moisture in the air made it almost impossible for my dad to fire up the grill and make the food.  The air conditioner in my parent's house was thinking about going out.  Because the food wasn't ready, we opened presents first so people could leave if they needed to.....but Avery wouldn't have any of it.  She was cranky.  And overwhelmed.  And hungry.  Finally, the food was ready and people started eating.  Marty and I left the party to go take some professional pictures with the photographer that we'd invited.  Avery wanted none of it.  She didn't want to sit still, she didn't want to smile and she DID NOT want her picture taken.  It was the perfect storm.  Standing on the sidelines, I felt like the party was a huge disaster.  Until I started talking to some of the guests after the party.  No one noticed all the little mistakes and flaws that I was noticing.  Not a single one of them noticed that the food wasn't ready on time or that Avery wasn't in a good mood.  They loved the decorations, the cake and the presents.  I realized that I was expecting everything to be completely perfect and, when it wasn't, I ruined the party for myself.  I couldn't enjoy my daughter's first birthday party because I was worried about what our pictures would turn out like.  Lesson learned:  it's not so much about everything going perfectly.  It's more about enjoying the day and making memories with my daughter.  When I stop and think about that day, I don't want to remember everything that went wrong.  I want to remember the little touches I worked on to make her day as Minnie-fied as possible.  I want to remember her face whenever we gave her a personalized Minnie Mouse Cozy Coupe.  I want to remember all the people that came that loved Avery and Marty and I enough to want to celebrate the day with us.  That's what matters. 



I was really happy with how all of the decorations and little touches turned out.  Each little girl at the party got their very own Minnie Mouse canvas bag...complete with Minnie Mouse bubbles, Mickey ears, Puffs (for the babies) and sunglasses inside.  The drink container came from I Have a Favor.  Cake was made by a family friend, but inspired by a photo I found on Pinterest.  I made the decorations, Minnie Mouse highchair and wreath myself (tutorials to follow!).  But, out of everything, this was my favorite part:

An old Cozy Coupe, transformed into Avery's very own Minnie-mobile!  Have I ever mentioned how thankful I am to have a husband that, not only loves me unconditionally, but puts up with my crazy self and ridiculous requests??  I found this idea from a blog I was browsing and immediately knew that Avery had to have one.  I posted on Facebook and asked if anyone wanted to sell their old Cozy Coupe.  Twenty minutes later, I was the proud owner of one (isn't social media amazing??).  I confronted my husband with the picture and my plan and he got to work.  I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out and Avery LOVES IT.  She wants to climb in and out and honk the horn as much as possible.  Here's a better picture of it the next day:

Then, I got our pictures back.  My photographer works MAGIC.  I didn't think Avery smiled the entire time we were taking pictures, yet somehow she managed to capture some amazing pictures.  I'm still not sure how she did it. 

Looking back, Avery's birthday party was pretty amazing.  I'm the mother of a one year old.  How the heck did this happen??