You Are My Sunshine Party for Hadley’s First Birthday

Over the weekend, we threw Hadley a You Are My Sunshine party, and it was so, so special.

I’ll be the first to say that Pinterest started to put a lot of pressure on me to throw the most perfect first birthday party ever.

I take that back. I was the one that was actually putting all the pressure on myself!

After playing with a few ideas of how I wanted to handle Hadley’s birthday, we decided to invite just our family members and throw a small, sweet celebration for her. A small part of me was sad that we weren’t going to be in either Tennessee or Alabama where our friends love Hadley so well (we are blessed in the friends department big time!), but I was seriously overjoyed that Jamie’s and my parents and siblings were all going to be flying and driving to Manhattan to play with us. Getting everybody together is tough these days!

We set the date for this past Saturday, November 15th, just two days shy of her birthday.

My mom ordered her dress (something she really wanted to do – thank you Mom!), I planned a snacky food and drink menu, I picked up a few crafts at Joann’s during the Veterans Day discount weekend (score!), and Jamie helped me clean the house in preparation to receive everybody.

One reason I love entertaining is because it makes us scrub our house. If I have people over once a week, my house gets super clean once a week. Makes sense to me! 🙂

You Are My Sunshine Party for Hadley’s First Birthday

Should I have ironed the table cloth? Oh well!

Look at those cupcakes! Made with lots of love. 🙂

So were the pretzels.

Basically everything I made was made with love. My food creations always seem to struggle in the presentation department. 🙂

I picked the theme “You are my sunshine” because that is her favorite song, and I’m not kidding.

I listened to the Elizabeth Mitchell version a lot while I was pregnant and missing Jamie, and we started playing and singing it for Hadley as soon as she was born. Every single time (and I do mean every single time) we play that song in the car, she gets quiet. Instantly. Many of you who have been in the car with us know well exactly what I’m talking about. I’m sorry for making you listen to it 88 times in a row.

Anyway!

And for you Hadley, your first birthday present will be snow.

Doesn’t every one year old have a black eye on his/her birthday?

The party was relaxed and a good time to just hang with everybody. Our little extrovert, doesn’t-know-a-stranger-EVER baby girl was definitely not herself and was pretty mope-y, but we initially chalked it up to her maybe being a little overwhelmed by the houseful. She didn’t have much interest in opening her presents (she usually loves boxes and paper and tearing into everything), but she did love all of her presents once they were opened! Our family spoiled her with gifts that were equal parts thoughtful and generous. We were feeling the love.

I was bursting (!!!) to do the smash cake with Had because I was confident she was going to love it.

She didn’t. She tried a few pieces here and there, and I was bummed out again! Shortly after, we took her temp and discovered she’d spiked a 102.6 fever (her highest fever to date). Awesome! Perfect timing! I felt so bad for her. Good thing your one year well-baby appointment (and shots!) is in three days, girlfriend.

She snuggled with me in the recliner under a heated blanket the rest of the afternoon/night before she crashed hard (obviously her snuggles were heaven). I also crashed hard around 9 p.m. (after announcing to everyone that I am, in fact, 85 and needed to put myself to bed), but I heard they all stayed up and laughed until midnight. We are thankful we have enough space in this house that both sets of parents and both of our brothers were able to stay here (we are really loving that basement I tell ya!).

Thank you to our families for making her day so special, and thank you to our best friends who loved on her from a distance with your gifts, video messages, text messages, etc. We love you so big!

Click below to read Hadley’s birthday story, about her 2nd birthday, and about her 3rd birthday!

More: Hadley’s Birth Story, her 2nd Birthday, and her 3rd Birthday (a “horse and princess” party)

Erica

Hi! I’m Erica, and I absolutely adore sharing my life on this website with you! I come here almost daily to blab about all of the things related to being a regular wife and mother in today’s ever-evolving society. I share about our new home, what’s on our kitchen table, what we’re hanging in our closets, where we’re traveling to next, my crazy 5 a.m. work outs, how I make time for girlfriends, our faith, and much more. We always have a lot of balls in the air and somewhat thrive on the chaos. I believe in the power of story-telling as a form of inspiration and entertainment, so I’m here to do both! I was born and raised in north Alabama and recently re-planted roots here again after my husband transitioned out of the Army (he is now in the Reserve and it’s going so well!) I’m a super proud mom to three little girls (ages 7, 4, and 1) who seem to be the stars of the show around here (for good reason – they’re pretty great!) I’m so glad you found me and are here reading! I hope we can get to know each other here on the blog as well as Facebook and/or Instagram. xoxo

You Are My Sunshine Party for Hadley’s First Birthday

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