Micah recently hit a major milestone—he turned one-year-old! It’s been such a crazy year—from the surprise of finding out I was pregnant, to starting residency, to deciding to leave residency, to renovating a house, to moving out of said house, and through it all, Micah has grown and amazed us every day. I couldn’t feel anymore blessed, and although life often throws us surprises, each and every one of these curve balls turned out to be home runs.
Now, all of these things being said, what better way to celebrate your child’s first year of life than with a huge party? Right? Well, I’ll let you answer that.
Way back in May, was when the subject of Micah’s birthday party first came up. “So, Micah’s birthday is coming up soon (Mind you, it was four months away at the time). Have you started thinking about what you’re going to do for his party?” This question was asked of me by both of his grandmothers. “No,” I would reply. “I’m not planning on doing anything big.”
I suppose those were words I would end up eating because as May turned into June, I started thinking, maybe I should really get going on things for his party. And from there, the snowball grew and grew. “Well, for his party it would be nice if he had a pony,” “And if he’s going to have a pony, he needs to have a nice theme to go along with it, “A Toy Story theme would be cute, I’ll just take a quick look on Pinterest to get some ideas,” and so it ballooned.
Of course, all the DIYs were super fun, and I really enjoyed being creative. There were crafts for kids, cool favors, a sensation station for babies, sports equipment for older kids, pony rides, and lots of cool Toy Story Decorations and cake.
I actually got quite a few resources and party ideas from The Suburban Mom for anyone interested in throwing their own Toy Story Party.
However, all fun and games aside, as I planned the party, and especially on the big day, I began to ask myself, “Does all of this really make sense?”. I went over-budget on purchasing things, the day of the party was pretty hot, so Micah ended up sweating through his cute little Woody outfit, he missed his afternoon nap because of the time of the party, and on top of all of that, he was passed around from hand-to-hand because I was busy getting things together. It just didn’t sit well with me.
Now I’ve always been a pretty sensible person, and for my wedding, I did a pretty good job of keeping things in perspective. It was simple, yet elegant, and my focus was truly on building a marriage, not throwing a picture-perfect wedding.
So how did it come to this with Micah’s party?
Honestly, I think I just carried away and truth be told, it really wasn’t for him anyway. That being said, this was definitely a lesson learned, and next year, he’s going to Chuck-E-Cheese.
