I should preface this post with a statement making it clear that I am well aware of the general sentiments about people who do completely over the top, Great Gatsbyesque first birthday parties for their kids, which are entirely about celebrating the parents and their friends, parties that epitomize the age old tradition of competitive parenting and keeping up with the Baby Joneses, and parties which celebrate excess rather than children. I share the majority of these sentiments. But I may have taken one giant leap towards this dark side with the boys' first birthday party.
To begin with, we had a theme. Of course we did. We tried to focus on something the boys loved, but quickly discarded the idea of a pureed foods party, despite its obvious appeal to both the very young and very old, thus celebrating the life cycle in its entirety. As a runner up, we decided on a golf party. The boys love to chew on the plastic golf balls that came with their little golf set and to hit each other with the plastic clubs. And I love to see them in polos and argyle. Win, win.
We tried to stick with the golf theme for food and decor and stopped short of outfitting the boys in full golf regalia (side note: yes, Anderson was wearing a Masters polo for the party. After all, if they're going to be golfers, and they sure seem to have a better chance at that than football given their stature and lineage, they might as well be excellent golfers). Friends and family joined us to celebrate our accomplishments in our first year of parenting, err, the boys' first year of life.
Truly, we wanted to celebrate with everyone who supported us, prayed with us, cried with us, laughed with us, brought us food, changed a diaper, made a bottle, held a baby, or just listened to/read the rantings of two first time parents. We wanted to honor our boys, but also the community of friends and family that supported us through this whole year.
We didn't manage to capture too much of the party in photos, but here's what we got:
 |
| Guests were greeted with a sign made by our very talented friend Annie |
 |
| And a close-up of the sign. Rickie Fowler (Carter) and Payne Stewart (Anderson) at the Masters. |
 |
Some of the food
(Yes, the golf tees were holding together the sandwiches. Please refer back to my preface) |
 |
| Cupcakes, fruit pizza and a banner of all the pictures of the boys at each month; our golf course only had 12 holes |
 |
| Ready for the boys to practice |
 |
| We made a cupcake for each of the boys. While I originally was quite proud of myself for using such a dark green frosting to mimic grass, when I saw lots of little children eating said frosting and dripping it down their hands, I made a mental note to place practicality before aesthetics in the future. Please hold me accountable. |
 |
| They have no idea what's happening. |
 |
| Not exactly the excited face I imagined |
 |
| This is a little better |
 |
| Very tentative first attempts to touch the cupcake |
 |
| First taste |
 |
| First taste for this one |
 |
| Wait, is his cupcake bigger than mine? |
 |
| Now we're excited about the cupcake and annoyed with Dad for interrupting the process by taking photos |
 |
| Ditto for this guy |
 |
| I have no words. He bore a striking resemblance to the Incredible Hulk. You know, the slightly lesser known yet very intimidating 15 lb. version |
 |
| This guy loves it |
 |
| Golf ball pops for favors. Fore coming and celebrating our kids and the ridiculousness of their parents. |
