We Threw Ourselves (as parents) a First Birthday Party

Sometimes traditions feel like you have to entertain everyone else’s ideas even if you don’t want to, for us, we’re not afraid to make plans outside of that box. And sometimes we buckle and end up veering towards the line of tradition. This time I think we met half way to society’s norm. A couple months ago I was contemplating throwing my soon-to-be one year old a birthday party and I wrote about it here. I received quite a few comments and the common denominator was ‘just throw something small, you’ll regret it later’. In the back of my head I knew I might regret not celebrating down the road, plus the mom guilt felt heavy.

Well, she turned one and we celebrated. We kept it casual, simple and us, so we invited friends to 3 Daughter’sBrewery in St. Pete. It’s actually very family friendly, they utilize their warehouse for games so parents get to enjoy tasty beers and play (safe) games with their kids. A few patrons not with our party actually commented that it was the best idea for a one year old’s birthday party AND a mom with her seventh month old said she’s even stealing the idea. #winning at parenthood.

It took every ounce of me not to get all crafty with decorations and snacks. The whole point of planning this ‘party’ some where casual was to not ‘plan’ much. In my mind I wanted the day to feel like we just group texted our friends last minute to come hang out. I ordered pink champagne cupcakes from the same bakery that did my baby shower, Hands on Sweets, I made a huge party mix and had dixie cups for easy scoop-and-go-mingling and last minute made these easy wraps, just in case. What’s not pictured, but worth mentioning are S shaped pretzels our friends at Jamison B. Breadhouse Bakes brought with their little man, Jamison. Delicious. A food truck is at the brewery on Fridays and Saturdays, but thankfully I called and found out there isn’t one on Sunday, I can’t have people drinking craft beers without snacking!

I’m happy we decided to do a little party for Sullivan, but mostly that we made it our own and enjoyed the day with our friends and family. I wouldn’t say it was stress-free because any time you’re hosting it’s a fight to spend time with everyone, it took me two hours to drink one beer.