Long time no see! It has been about 12 months since my last blog post. This has not been because I haven't had anything to say but, man, is motherhood busy! I am so happy and blessed to report that I am OFFICIALLY a STAY-at-home mom! With that said, I will have so much free time now to put my feet up and write posts for this blog (I hope you read those words with as much sarcasm as I intended them to have). But seriously, now that Sarah Parker is a TODDLER, and has an ounce more independence, I intend to put all the words I have been keeping inside for the first year of her life out into the universe.
I thought I would ease back into the blogging world gently with a short post about Spark's first birthday party.
When Sarah Parker was about six-months-old, it all started. People began asking me what the theme of her birthday party would be. I am sure the first time I must have blinked blankly as the questioner looked on like they just asked the simplest question in the world. I am sure I should have known the answer before I even gave birth to her, but the fact was I had no clue what her party was going to be like. Frankly, I could have cared less.
"I'm not sure," I said, "I guess I will have to look on Pinterest for some ideas." And look I did. I even pinned a few pictures. But let me tell you, some of those Pinterest-folk are insane. The limits they will go to in order to have a picture perfect party far outweigh how much their children actually enjoy their parties. Their ONE-YEAR-OLD children, at that. The more I looked, the more I could feel myself being sucked in to the stress and the mess. Then I began to remember the wise words of a godly woman I highly value (I am looking at you, Courtney Atkins). She said she didn't want her little ones to feel entitled to the best, biggest birthday bashes. She didn't want them to feel entitled to a party at all. Luckily, I left my filtered-photo-induced fog and began following that wise train of thought. No theme, I decided. Just family and the closest friends. No stress, just a happy day to celebrate (but not worship) my daughter.
Below is a huge picture dump of how that new dream of a party turned out (feel free to skip this part if it doesn't interest you). The photos below were taken by the one and only Autumn Vernon.
Also, the ever-talented Jacob McGarry created the video below. He also took a ton of great pictures of the party tagged to my Facebook page! If you haven't seen those, please go check them out! It is good to know gifted people :)
Happy Birthday, little one!
