Slow Down Birthday Party

If you weren't invited to Hudson birthday party today, let me explain. People don't usually associate the phrases; "slowing down" and "toddler birthday party" together. Ted and I made the decision to reign it in and we're so glad we did! You see, back in December we had our annual cookie party where friends and family come and bake cookies together, then everyone goes home with a nice mixed plate and sugar headache. This year however, Ted and I did not enjoy ourselves. We had wonderful friends and family here, everything was going smoothly as far as anyone else could tell BUT Ted and I were stressed trying to keep up with Hudson, mingle with everyone, AND be the hosts. It was not happening. Hudson's birthday was the next event where Hudson would be awake, and we'd have people over. We decided to just invite family this time.

Low-key and relaxed; the kids play while the family chats.

Let me tell you how much it hurt to not invite friends, but as soon as I almost broke down and addressed the envelope, I thought about how it would actually play out; these great friends will have traveled to be here, and we'd hardly get to spend anytime with them. I'd feel bad and it would diminish from my fun. Besides, inviting "family only" is still a crowd of 20, 5 of which are under 3.

Even though it was just family, I still wanted to do "real" invitations, and being as it's the only party where I do real invitations, I splurged a bit (compared to my normal Dollar Tree purchases.) I had seen such adorable products from Tiny Prints. Here's the sample of the invitation we got;

Tiny Prints was awesome by the way. The invitations came in less than a week, and super high quality, actually a great value too!

We had the party from 11-1 and the plan was to have a light lunch, cake, then presents and go. I like having end times and clarity, so on the back we had a picture of Hudson that said, "Lunch and Cake will be served." For the menu we kept is simple and toddler friendly: a sandwich bar with variety of breads, meats, cheeses, avocado, tomato, lettuce, condiments, hot appetizers from the freezer, raw veggies, pretzels, and nuts. For desserts, I made whoopie pies, and cake. Hudson's grandmas brought fruit salad and peanut butter brownies.

I had been asking Hudson for a month what decorations he wanted for his birthday party, his answer always varied, so I got a variety. Who cares if it didn't match, today was about him! Our only non-table decoration was a happy birthday banner. I don't think anyone cared that there wasn't more. We had some kids music on in the sunroom and everyone moved freely around the first floor.

I'm sentimental, so I thought I'd set out Hudson's first two birthday mats too.

My only birthday tradition I have so far for Hudson is having everyone sign a photo mat. I've started taking him to Portrait Innovations each year, and then I can give away the prints at the party and save postage and effort from distributing them later on!

When I try to write on cakes, it looks below pathetic. Hudson loves seeing "His H" so this was an easy fix. I just made a stencil out of wax paper and poured on the sprinkles!

Hudson was a little scared of the fire, but was happy to get some help.

Hudson's cousins taking a momentary break watching Cars.

Some family stayed 'til after 2 and that was just fine with us. Clean up was easy, and I was so touched Hudson actually gave everyone hugs and said thank you. As for his pile of goodies, we usually stow half of them away til later. We're not mean though, we do it when he's sleeping, and unless he sees it in the closet, he doesn't ask about it, he just gets "new" toys throughout the year, and who wouldn't love that! The best gift of all; Hudson's aunt and cousin surprised us and drove up from Atlanta to be here today. Hudson didn't grasp the significance but we sure did.