Addie's First Birthday: the Best "No-Theme" Party

Though I have not written about her, I assure you my baby daughter does exist. I know, I know... I am a classic example of a second-time mom who has exhausted all her awe and attention on her first-born—pictures, scrapbooks, recordings of all milestones—and with the second one? We celebrate the mere fact that we have thus kept her alive! But of course not. Just as I had wrestled over and succeeded in making room in my heart for Caedmon when I was just a pup-mom (I kid you not—I cognitively could not fathom loving another more than Lucy), we have so seamlessly and effortlessly opened and entwined our hearts around our sweet Addie. The truth, then, for my delinquency in writing about our new baby thus far is, 1. We had a new baby. And 2. Addie has been a pretty easy baby, and, comparable to the likes of Taylor Swift, whose creative genius is honed by the shards of her broken heart, I, too, apparently need some sort of strong emotional catalyst to get me all emo and introspective and... writing. So while Caedmon is my muse, if for no other reason than the fact that he sometimes drives me nuts, Addie is my prize who I simply and tenderly delight in. Addie turned one last month, and so finally, I decided to flex my writing muscles and set my fingers over the keyboard to share about her first birthday, because it really was a memorable day for one remarkable little lady.

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Addie's party was intended to be effortless. Originally, I had wracked my brain for fun themes that I could lose myself creatively in: an ice cream social, a Cheerios party, or, in a nod to her signature trait, a bed head bash. But while I wanted to celebrate big, the thought of prepping for a party with an over-the-top theme and not only cleaning up, but then packing for a family vacation scheduled two days afterwards, was already giving me hives. So I decided to scrap the theme! You can't go wrong with food and friends (and a small activity in the form of a tournament bracket). And the themes? I decided to save them for later parties, when Addie and her friends can appreciate and participate in all the to-do. It was freeing, really.

So I found a pretty Evite and sent out instant (and free) invitations. I asked my dear friend Amanda of Paper Heart Patisserie to make her sugar cookies as our favors, so that took another huge task off my to-do list. I decided we would grill, so even in the food department, Wayne would be doing most of the work! I was set! This party would require minimal effort from me! I felt a little sneaky, actually.

Except... Amanda needed to know what I wanted the favors to look like, so we decided to extend the summery-fruity vibe of the Evite and go with watermelon- and pineapple-shaped cookies. I felt that familiar flicker of creative inspiration as my mind leapt to the gold pineapple-stamped dress Addie had hanging in her closet, still waiting its debut. So much for my no-theme party, because one pineapple led to another, and before I knew it, I was snipping gold foil confetti and constructing a watermelon balloon garland ala Pinterest late into the night. But it was just one garland, and perhaps because it was created on a last-minute whim as opposed to an imperative as part of an elaborate concept, all the preparation was still minimal and enjoyable.

top: Amanda's gorgeous cookies! How could I not go with a theme after seeing these?

bottom left: My watermelon balloon garland with palm fronds, snipped fresh from a friend's yard. The week prior to the party, I scanned the terrain each time we hopped in the car, looking for low-hanging palm trees planted on public property, because yes, I had planned to return at night with tree trimmers, but apparently, Elk Grove does not landscape with palm trees. Luckily, I have a friend who does.

bottom right: Addie's healthy smash cake (that was saved by Amanda who effortlessly whipped up and applied a fresh batch of frosting when my healthy version resembled more pancake batter than anything else), and my ever-favorite chocolate cake from Ina Garten (coated with toasted coconut) that I make for all celebrations, because I love it that much (and because I'm really a one-trick pony).

See, Wayne is doing all the work.

Our Addie photo wall that was put up by washi tape, and the fun tassels I found on sale during a random shopping trip at Nordstrom. So effortless. So easy. (Especially when it was actually put up by my sister-in-law, Emily. She and her husband, Carl, have become my tireless events team; their ready and ample help before each festivity, wholly indispensable.) Allow me to breathe out a sigh of relief... ahhhhh.... The random items on the credenza were for our bracket activity.

While we finished eating, we started the bracket portion of the party. This is a game I borrowed from my sister, who borrowed from a friend, and it's ingenious (IF you have a pleasant-tempered baby, which I am still so euphoric we do). Our friends had been instructed to bring a non-food, non-toy item from home that they thought would attract Addie's attention most. They were divided into heats and then, with Addie placed in the middle of the room, competed against one another by shaking their items, in hopes that Addie would crawl towards and take their object, thus advancing them onto the next round.

Ready, set, GO! The action was sometimes intense, though often slow... but always comical as Addie looked quizzically at all of us monkeys dancing around her.

Addie was often a tease...

Ooh, what? Shiny!

Hm, makes noise, too??

I think I like it...

But these bracelet bangles are enticing, too...

I like the bangles!

And the bangles were our ultimate winner!

And then it was time for cake! Here was another instance of significant difference between Addie and Caedmon; at Caedmon's first birthday (that was super small because of his extreme anxiety around people), he burst into tears with all the sudden attention and applause when we sang "Happy Birthday" to him. Addie? She smiled and pointed at all the friendly faces singing to her, as if to say, "I see you, and you! Thank you for coming! I love you, too!" She clapped her hands along with us at the end of the song, like the quintessential Angel Baby.

Watching her take her first tastes of cake as she gingerly stuck her finger in the frosting and then demurely brought it to her mouth was like watching grass grow. Stinking adorable grass... but it defied the idea of a SMASH cake!

I love this series of pictures, above. In the first, Addie is cuteness personified. In the second, Wayne looks like a photoshopped photo-bomber. And the third? It reminds me that though I think about things like what our family is wearing, particularly to special occasions at which we'll be photographed and memorialized for ages, and thus painstakingly pick out the kids' outfits and mine, I need to pass that memo onto Wayne, because otherwise, he will arrive in his "got burritos?" t-shirt. So fancy.

This is so typical my-mom, already exerting her tiger (grand)mom-ness... "Wah?! No eat cake? Work harder!!" Sorry, Addie... I feel ya.

Our charming and delicious cookie favors—the little gems that were the springboard to what became an adorable first birthday for our sweet girl. Seriously, THIS is what made the party and tied all the details together, giving the impression that I actually put forth any real effort! Thank you, Amanda, for doing all the work and making our party so memorable!

Addie's no-theme-but-okay-pineapple-watermelon-themed party was so much fun that Caedmon was completely wiped out on our way to dinner that evening. Couldn't even make it to the after-party. It was that good. And so perfect for our exceedingly sweet and remarkably amiable baby girl.

Happy first birthday, Little One!

Caedmon's Trash Bash (aka Ugly is Good!)

Caedmon turned four in April, so pick and choose your favorite cliché, because they are all true, and I feel them all: I can't believe my baby is already four! Where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday he was in diapers (okay, that one is almost true). They really do grow up too fast! I love him to the moon and back!

I hadn't done much for his previous birthdays, save the small bread party I threw when he turned a year, hoping to postpone the hoopla for as long as possible. At ONE, he was exceedingly anxious and shy, so a small gathering of mostly family was the only way to go. TWO was a pre-existing dinner with friends, a small smash cake tacked on at the end of the evening and a digger from his toy pile thrown on top as an afterthought. THREE was a simple play date with lunch, no presents (although I couldn't help but include decorate-your-own train muffins that I later realized were way over the heads of my little guests).

But FOUR. Four is different. At four, he has attended enough birthday parties now to be absolutely cognizant and altogether aware of what a birthday is and what a birthday often entails, and so, late one night, as the mounting pressure and looming arrival of his birthday felt especially acute, I begrudgingly opened my laptop and hunkered down for some initial brainstorming and ideas-gathering. Dump trucks and other construction vehicles populated my Pinterest page until it suddenly came to me that there could be no better way to celebrate Caedmon than with his favorite obsession: trash! (In fact, I often overhear him singing to himself as he's playing, "I love trash, trash. I love trash." Just a little ditty he made up.)

And so, knowing how much Caedmon would enjoy his Trash Bash, I planned this party with a new enthusiasm, because that's what truly motivates and inspires us as moms when we plan anything for our children, right? Whether we ambitiously (and sometimes unwittingly) decide to tackle some Pinterest project that we don't really have the bandwidth for, or simply have the thought and foresight to invite a few good friends over for cake, it's that wide-eyed and awe-struck "wow!!!... cool!!" (or maybe a big appreciative smile from those thoughtful types) that makes any trouble worth it. I'm still all about keeping things simple (I tried keeping this party as simple as possible, but if we're really talking simple, Wayne never even had a birthday party growing up, and he's fine), but sometimes, just a little bit of un-simple goes a long way and, only because I like this kind of thing in the first place, is completely worth it!

So one party down... how many more to go? ... Let the hoopla begin!

These invitations were printed at home and coffee-stained individually. No two are alike... artisanal invitations, if you will. And it's a good thing they were SUPPOSED to look like garbage, because they turned out too large for the envelopes, but no problem! Scrunch it all up! Ugly is good! Everything fits, plus room for more trash!

My family knows that I readily accept and am so thankful for all offers of help, especially since I had been battling the tail end of a cold the days before the party, when occasion forced me to stave off rest until after the event. Here are Auntie Emily and Uncle Chuck constructing placards for the food. Leave it to artsy Auntie Emily, of course, to take a simple directive ("Just glue these printed pieces of paper onto some cardboard.") and turn it into something creative (yet still grungy enough to be deemed trash) by cutting up a cereal box to outline the placards.

Work gets done, even with a monkey on Uncle Ed's back...

Caedmon is helping with the Rice Krispy treats, and by helping, I mean that he is exercising all his self-control not to touch every single piece in front of him.

Our house The To Landfill

I had wanted to scatter trash all over our porch and front yard, but somehow, I didn't think our HOA would have been down with that.

My trash wreath. I was inspired by this wreath, but given the time crunch, I created this much simpler "design" and pinned all the pieces on instead of gluing, so that I could reuse the wreath later on.

I absolutely love the garbage truck shirt I found for Caedmon made by Anthony of HopperShop on Etsy. The graphic is definitely more cool than cutesy, exactly what I was looking for for my big boy. Check out the shop's designs; he has other trucks, and you can customize the color shirt and logo. (Anthony was also really great in expediting my order. I didn't come across this shirt until the Monday before the party, but I made a Hail Mary order and included a message explaining my situation, and Anthony made sure we received the shirt Friday evening, at his expense! That's customer service that rivals Nordstrom!)

We're still in the process of putting our house together after moving (relatively) recently. I had these empty frames lying around, so we decided to display some grocery ads to add to our "grungy chic" décor.

Our snacks for the day included: trashy (Rice Krispy) treats, smelly (Gold)fish, junkyard dogs (pigs in a blanket), flat tires (Bagel Bites), fruit compost, PU punch, and waste water, all set against a wall of streamers made of trash bags and newspapers. The streamers didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned (maybe it needs more newspaper strips to fluff it up), but it's okay... again, ugly is good. (This became my calming mantra.)

Did you know that PU (or pee-yew) is actually spelled "piu" and has its root in the Indo-European word "pu" and means to rot or decay? I learned this while looking up the spelling for "piu", although I still went with the shorter, more familiar (though technically incorrect) "PU". 

My favorite cake is Ina Garten's chocolate cake. It has such an intense, chocolate-y flavor and a rich, moist crumb. The only problem is that I suck at cake-frosting, so the crumbs were getting everywhere... but again, no problem! Ugly is good! (I can't tell you how much I love this garbage theme!) I left the cake partially deconstructed and imperfect (not that I really had any control over that) and topped the cake with one of Caedmon's garbage trucks. 

When you're four (or five or 60), it's always time for an impromptu dance party, especially when an awesome trash mix comes on! I spent HOURS scouring the internet and YouTube for songs about garbage, my query made more challenging as I sorted past all songs by the band Garbage for the true gems about refuse and waste. If you are throwing a garbage-themed party (or perhaps simply for your listening pleasure), here you go. You're welcome.

I think the highlight of the day was story time with Uncle Ed. All the kids (and adults) were enraptured by his vivid voice inflections and animated onomatopoeia; if his current career aspirations don't pan out, there's always the children's birthday party industry!

While we had been busy getting everything ready inside before the party, Wayne was in charge of the outside. I handed Wayne several bags of trash that I had collected over the last few weeks (clean stuff, like egg cartons and cereal boxes) with the instructions to scatter it all over our backyard, because (say it together now)—ugly is good! You can imagine his bewildered horror. "Am I going to have to clean all this up later, too?" is what I'm sure he was thinking, but no! I would have my waste management crew for that!

Our one game for the afternoon was the trash pick-up that Wayne had, in such good faith, set up in our backyard despite his reservations. Armed with a trash bag each, the "workers" cleaned the yard in minutes and then presented their filled bags in exchange for their day's wages—two chocolate gold coins.

I almost bought these robot claws for the kids, thinking it would make picking up trash that much more fun, but when I tested it on Caedmon, his little hands weren't able to work the mechanism, so back on the shelf they went at the store. As it turns out, picking up trash is GREAT fun, and the kids all filled their bags with ready alacrity. (Why isn't it like this when it's clean-up time at home?)

Might I add how budget-friendly this party was; I mean, there's nothing more cost-effective than garbage!

Waste Management Crew at the To Landfill. Check out our little friend in the yellow in the back. She's got this trash-picking-up pose down...

... even well after everyone else had dispersed. :)

And then it was time for cake and ice cream and presents!

Make a wish, my sweet boy.

Caedmon: "COOL!!! LOTS OF TRACKS!"

Mom: "Cool........ lots... of tracks.................."

And as guests left, they were instructed to clean up after themselves.

Trash Can Favors: I cut up a trash bag and filled each square with "trash" gummies (Swedish fish, Coke bottles, fruit-shaped gummies, and gummy carrots I found that were leftovers from Easter) before tying up and tossing into silver plastic cups. 

Cheers to turning 4, Caedmon! We hope you had a trashy birthday, in the best possible way! 

(Although next year, what am I going to do when ugly is NOT good???)

Photo Credits: mostly Uncle Chuck and Uncle Ed, with a spattering by Mom and Dad.