Nearly four years ago, after 15 hours of labour and an emergency C-section, I became a mother to a beautiful 9.5lb, 22.5″ baby boy. He emerged calm, completely flawless, and stared at us with big, navy blue eyes and a placid sense of calm and curiosity. Mr. Tall held him in his arms first while they stitched me up and my most vivid memory is of the look on his face as he held this tightly-wrapped bundle, repeating, my boy, my boy, over and over. I still tear up at that recollection.
The Boy. Just moments after birth- so fresh and so clean. Not anymore. 4 year old boys can get extraordinarily dirty in seconds. It’s their superhero power.
Fast forward to this coming week and that very same baby, so laid back and sweet, will be 4. FOUR, you guys. How did that happen? Since I have all the wheels in motion planning his birthday party for next Saturday I thought I would do a little look back here at his first. He had a few teeth, was just learning to walk, and had the same killer smile he has today. Granted, he’s leaner and taller but he still has the family’s signature round cheeks and I have a feeling those are his (and mine to chomp on!) for life. Amen.
Because I’m not one for character-based parties, I decided I would take my cues from his room design at the time and go with shades of blue- sky blue, dark blue-black- and kelly green tempered with lots of white for a crisp, preppy look. The party itself was at a park on a perfect sunny summer day. Summer babies really are the luckiest, aren’t they, especially in Toronto where the weather can usually be on the cooler side the rest of the year. The photos below are by the fab Jessica Lin.
The Save the Date cards. Silhouettes and Latin and stripes, oh my!
I started off by designing Save the Date cards with his silhouette and motto (Vita bona est/Life is Good) on one side, and a personal crest on the other. I included all of the things he loved then in his crest- elephants balancing soccer balls on their noses, and an open book held up by a lion and a bear. The crown is because he was, and still is, our little prince. (Ok, yes, enough cheese.) These were mailed out in navy blue envelopes, sealed with circle stickers printed with his silhouette. Invitations followed in about a month. I designed those too and had them printed on blue balloons. These were then attached with baker’s twine to a card with instructions to blow up the balloon. I packaged these in green envelopes and sealed them with the silhouette stickers again. I used rounded corner cutters to add a little bit of extra detail to all the paper goods. Both the save the date’s and invitations were a big hit!
The invitations. Printed balloons are the best, y’all.
Everything else just fell into place. We had lots of balloons, lots of good food, lots of people who love us and whom we love right back, and chocolate cake- what more could you want, right?
Bunch o’ balloons. It’s not a birthday without them!
The sweetest face! He was just learning to walk and had a ball as everyone took turns helping him out. It was Mr. Tall’s turn this time.
The people. This is one of my closest friends and I just love this picture for so many reasons- mainly because it reminds me of her (#obvious) but also because I want that hat.
The cake I designed- I just realized that possibly the crown should have been on the top tier. Ah well. It’s the quirks that make the party, right? Or something like that. My amazing friend from The Pursuit of Frosting in Toronto made my awkward sketch come to life. Fun fact: only the bottom tier was real cake. The other three were model cakes purely for design purposes.
The favours. I found these amazing jute bags from Dollarama of all places! Just goes to show you can find the nicest things in the most unexpected places. I dressed them up with ribbons and hand-written tags. They were full of personalized gifts for each child, ranging from sidewalk chalk and bubbles for the younger kids to puzzles, games and books for the older ones.
And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed this little look back at the Boy’s first birthday. I can’t wait to share his fourth birthday celebration with you soon!
Until next time,
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