5 tips for throwing (and enjoying) your child's first birthday party

 I posted a few days ago about Tobyn's First Birthday and how wonderful it turned out. I had a absolute BLAST putting it together, it even made me think about starting a party planning business until I realized 1. I live it the WORST place for that right now and 2. That I am not superwoman and can't add anything else to my plate right now. 

But I would not be being honest if I didn't tell you also how stressful putting the party together was. If I hadn't had my humongous family there to help, I would have probably been curled up in the corner crying at 4 am the night before the party. 

So I decided to give some of my tips for throwing a great first birthday party. I mean, I've only done it once, but I learned quite a bit. 

So here goes:

1. If you don't want to spend a ton of money, plan to DIY a lot of everything. 

I went to Lowe's and bought paint like for the walls in the little sample jars ($3 baby!) that way I could choose the exact shade I wanted, then I basically bought everything I needed on discount. If it was the wrong color then painted it with the matching party colors. 

I researched ALOT in the months before his party, I searched for DIYs, cheapest supplies, party ideas, everything. Then I set in place about two months before what was needed before I even started purchasing. 

2. Ask for help

I would have been screwed if my family hadn't been there to help e. Originally I thought I was going to make 7 different desserts to feed 45 people the night before all by myself. My family offered to come a day early to help though, and I'm so glad they did. Ask a mom, sister, aunt, friend, anyone that you know is creative but would respect your wishes. 

3. Draw up plans for decorating before party day

This may sound a little crazy, but I had all these decorations and I didn't want to have to run around the house the day of the party trying to figure out where to put them. So I drew up a simple sketch of where I wanted everything to go. I actually ended up handing it off to family member so it was nice that I didn't have to explain it to everyone. 

4. Make several lists, so you don't forget anything

I made a list for all the food, all the party necessities, a list of all the DIY items needed and then a list of all the actual DIY projects to be done. It kept me super organized and helped me know what still needed to be done for the party in the weeks before. 

5. Remember, this party is for you child and they are going to have fun no matter what. Make sure you enjoy this moment with them.

I did my best at this, but I was running around also making sure everyone was having fun. I did do my best to stay with Tobyn though, and enjoy every moment with him: The presents, the cake.

One thing I'm still kicking myself about is when we put him in his highchair to eat his cake, he was pretty overwhelmed at the 45 people staring at him so we hurried and gave him the cake, totally forgetting to sing him Happy Birthday. Oh well. Kid loved his cake anyways. :)

So, mistakes are going to happen. 

It's life, it's a party, a celebration. It won't matter when they are 20. Just enjoy the day with your family, and do everything you can to make it a great one for you child. That's all that matters.

I hoped these tips helped someone, if they did or if anyone has any other tips please share!

Lyz

Happy Birthday Tobyn!

I wrote a post on Tobyn's birthday about this past year, you can read that here.

Yesterday though, we celebrated his birthday with all our friends and family. 

All of my family lives at least 3 1/2 hours away, but that didn't stop them.

It was a wonderful day!

The theme was elephants, simple and adorable. 

I handmade everything with a some help from family, and all the food was made by my sister and her huge family. Seriously, they were like a catering team, all 6 of them helped in some way or another.  

And it turned out so beautiful!

The cake stand was one of my favorite pieces, did you know how expensive cake stands are??

I wasn't about to go broke for a cake stand I liked, so since the theme was elephants, I made a elephant "pedestal" like they use in the circus. I bought a $13 flower pot  from Lowe's, turned it upside down and painted it with some paint I already had for the party. Voilà!

I love all the details from the chevron napkins, to the paper straws. The napkins were from the  Oriental Trading Co. Straws, plates, cups and balloons were from the very affordable Birthday Direct.

You can't see them too well here, but these platters turned out so good.

Again, I wasn't going to pay $40 a platter. So I found four ( two small, two large) gorgeous pale blue plates on major sale at Kirkland's for $.78 a piece! (That's what I'm talking about!)

And then two candlesticks on sale at Hobby Lobby for $2 a piece. I painted those red. 

A little bit of hot glue and BANG. Perfection. 

Vintage Roasted Peanut Bags from The Sugar Diva, they had elephants on them. So cute!

Nutella Bruchetta is the bomb. Just as a side note, do yourself a favor and make this.

The platter they are sitting on, you can't see very well, but I just bought an out of season plastic platter at Hobby Lobby and painted grey, red and blue chevron, It turned out precious!

We love the Starbuck's coffees you can buy at the store, so I just collected the bottles for a few months for a "vintage milk bottle" counter. We offered cold milk, because with all those sweets, it was a must. 

Our "First Year" Window.

We used golf tees to sick balloons in the ground and lined the walkway all the way to the door!

Got this idea over at Life's Little Celebrations. I love it!

 And he obviously had a great time!
This "One" banner was made by me, it turned out so well and was super simple!

It was a wonderful day, but there were some things that worked and some that didn't. 

Things I wish we'd done but forgot.

I'm going to write a post about my First Birthday Party Tips in the near future, so keep a lookout!

Lyz

one year has passed.

My baby, he isn't a baby anymore. He's walking, jabbering, laughing. He has his favorite things, foods, people. 

He knows how to say "light" and "uh oh","hot", "dadda", "momma" ( sometimes). 

I have heard it a million times "Don't blink, you'll miss everything". 

I don't think I missed anything, I feel like I honestly can say I did my best to not take one moment, one stage, one developmental change for granted.

I photographed EVERYTHING this year.

But, I did blink, somehow it's a year later. And my sweet baby is 1 today.  

Happy Birthday Tobyn Iver, I hope we can bless you as much as you've blessed us.

We love you.

Lyz

photography by me.

DIY Wall Gallery

If you've kept up with us, you know we recently moved into our first house. Still a rental, but it's a house and probably 4 times larger than our last apartment. Which means... LOTS of wall space.

I have been trying to spend some creative time coming up with ways to cover these walls, in a way that we love but that is... to be honest.. dirt cheap.

Going out and buying designer art just isn't gonna happen for this one salary family.

So, I got creative.

I started collecting lots of picture frames, from yard sales and family. 

I probably paid a total of $5 for all of these frames.

I laid them all out on my patio and rearranged them around until I liked what I saw.

Then I went to Lowe's and picked up some of their Sample Paint.

I wish some had told me about this years ago. 

It's $2.98 for 8 oz. 

That's plenty for craft projects and perfect because you get to pick the exact shade.

I've been going nuts with it.

I used Sauna, Evergreen and Humboldt Earth from Valspar.

I painted them all different colors, keeping the like colored frames away from one another.

I then decided I wanted more than just pictures in this. 

I had been holding onto these 4 burlap canvases that I had for like a year.

I got them at Micheal's when they had them on sale for like $.25.

I then Googled "Good Four Letter Words" because I was that stumped about which word to choose.

"Home, Love, Live, Pray.. etc." 

I decided since it was by the door "Live" was a great reminder word to get out there and well.. "Live".

So I painted them on. No real strategy to that.

I also had that old key that was given to me, it had daisies on it originally but I decided to paint over it and hang it up here since I am always loosing keys. 

I also had two types of cloth I was given from a family member as well, I thought they would do well on this wall. They had some of the colors from the color scheme, but not all, so it was perfect from keeping it looking to "matchy matchy."

Then I threw it all on the wall, rearranging some as I went to make it work better.

The Photography in the frames is mine. It's pictures I've taken over the past three years that I always wanted to frame, finally I am. :)

Lyz

my perfect pumkin

We are horrible parents.

We put our child in a pumpkin.

But you know what?

He loved it!

He was perfectly happy in there.

I swear I could eat up his perfect little self.

Lyz

thank you beautiful weather!

It is my absolute favorite time of the year!

I'm a chilly, falling leaves, sweaters and boots kind of girl!

All of this beautiful weather has inspired me to paint some landscape pictures, ones that I saw over on The Rooster and The Hen blog.

This is just a sneak peak of what the finished product will be, once the bedroom is done.

 I have so much wall to cover in our new house. It's unreal. I better get to painting.....

Lyz

one month already?

When did this happen?? He's growing leaps and bounds!

A Little Man is On His Way!

My sweet Meemaw on the right, and a few of my nieces and nephews.

 I love this picture so much!

 Here are just a few pictures from our baby shower.

Had such a wonderful time! It was truly amazing! All of our friends and family were such blessings and gave more than we could even have imagined!

It was a "Little Man" Theme, which turned out so cute! Now we just really can't wait to meet him!

Lyz

2.25 lbs and 75% complete

Yes, that's a cauliflower.
They tell me our sweet man is about 2. 25 lbs.
OH EM GEE. We are three fourths of a way there!!!!!
Third Trimester babay!
(I'm only slightly excited, obviously)

Enjoying the heck out of all this beautiful weather.
I just love spring. Hopefully we get an actual spring, because we never did find Winter.
I have a birthday next week, and we are going to Savannah, GA.
I am literally too excited. We need a getaway, a "babymoon" I guess is what they call them.
Birthdays are so weird when you get ....older.
I could seriously care less this year. Maybe it's because we are young and broke, and don't get to do much.
Except go to Savannah, and take pictures of beautiful, wonderful things.
Just being given the opportunity to do that, and hold my sweetheart's hand at the same time is more than enough for me :)


Lyz

rutabaga baby.

  25 Weeks today... And I'm feeling it. 

Apparently.... he's the size of a rutabaga? 

Probably the most unattractive vegetable I've ever came in contact with.

But, I'm pretty positive baby boy is the cutest thing I'll ever come in contact with, next to his daddy ;)

June, hurry and be here.

Lyz

dabbling.

I'm 23 weeks, still trying to enjoy the "energy spurt" I was told I'd get before I get ginormous.

 But unlike this time last year, where I was spending most of my time in college classes and hanging around the campus in all my adorable outfits that all fit me oh so correctly, I feel I have barely anything to fit into to still look like myself.

 I learned quickly that most maternity clothes are not very supportive of looking like a we actually took the time to get ready. I got really depressed there for a while because of how everything fit. But recently, I've started dabbling more.

 Above, I have on a dress, yes a dress. It came to about mid thigh right when I bought it, and I think between my learning "what you can and can't dry in the dryer" stage and my bump, it's now hereby being dubbed a shirt.

Over it I just have a simple, lightweight cardigan from Old Navy.

Paired with a skinny, light leather belt I have had forever.

My jeans are from Motherhood Maternity, really the only maternity items I would buy (except for a few adorable shirts I happen to find.) I actually like the full panel belly, it last the whole pregnancy and I feel like it gives you more breathing room. 

And then of course, my moccasins.

It has been spring all winter here in the south east, so I haven't had the chance to layer like I really love to in the winter. Breaks my heart, really.

it's a tobyn!

This is how my very surprised family found out we were have a Mr. Tobyn, and not a Miss Ellette.

We cut the cake with all my family there (Jonathan's family and mine sadly live 3 hours apart) and the icing inside of the cake showed what we were having. Everyone was so surprised, my family is like 90% girl. We really needed another little man ;)

And of course we are still both 10 years old, obviously.

I loved doing this. It really made it a whole different experience. We knew for about a day before they did, because we went to the ultrasound with Jonathan's mother the day before. Then drove up to see my family. It was so hard to talk to my mom or sister on the phone for those 24 hours, and apparently I am awful at secrets because they said I slipped up and said "he" in conversations. I, of course, remember no such things.

Lyz