Harry's First Birthday!
After weeks of deliberating whether or not we would throw Harry a First Birthday Bash, we finally bit the bullet and went ahead with it. Why not? You only turn one once right? Also, given his parent's track record of enjoying parties, we knew for sure that our little man would love it too. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, right?
I know people say, including myself, what's the point?!! He's not going to remember it! Why waste the time, effort and money? Well, after the year we have had, moving to a new city and all the challenges of new baby in a new place, we wanted to give back to all of our amazing friends, who we consider family now, who are always inviting us to their homes for parties, dinners and getting me out of the house for a coffee or playdate. Including us in their lives as if we were their own kin is something that we don't take for granted and we wanted to show them our appreciation and gratitude. So while it was all about Harry, it was also a big thank you for all of our guests.
First on the agenda; find the perfect venue fit for our prince Harry and his fellow royal mini guests. Guess where made the cut? Southern Cut Barbecue made the cut! Just look at the picture above and see how homely, bright and warm it looks. As we live in an apartment, it didn't suit to have everyone over to our place. This venue felt just like we were at home though. Melissa Schero and her team there did such an amazing job decorating the place and even safety locked all the plug sockets so that no tiny fingers could find their way in. Thanks to Matt Moore for allowing us to take up so much space on a Sunday afternoon! It was just so bright and cheerful with exceptional service and don't even get me started on the food!
On the menu were some pulled pork sliders, sliced brisket sliders, baby back ribs, deviled eggs, tuna tartare and mixed green salad all to be washed down with some Voveti Prosecco and delicious wine from Napa. The kind waiter there kept topping me up all day so I was nicely warmed up with velvety red wine in time for my little speech :) Their drinks selection was really good with lots of variety and I hear they do a great Irish whiskey here too..I think it's called 'Egan's' :) The food was so good and I saw lots of people go up for seconds! Thanks to Lee Ann Whippen, the chef at Southern Cut, there was plenty to go around. I luckily got to steal some to bring home which I am nibbling on as I write this!! Sadly, unlike at Southern Cut, nobody is here to bring me a warm, wet towel to wipe my hands with afterwards. Also a big thank you to the kitchen who baked a beautiful cheese cake and decorated it especially for Harry! Unfortunately none of this was left over to take home. Oh well, I'll just have to go back again.
Tuna tartare
Mixed Green Salad.
Deviled eggs.
Delicious Cheese Cake
Prosecco and Wine for the adults
For all of the little ones at the party, I prepared the snacks myself. I made sure, as best I could, to keep the treats as healthy as possible but to deliver them in a fun way. Of course there were a few sneaky chocolate treats thrown in!! Wouldn't be a real party without chocolate. I also couldn't resist the disposable plastic champagne flutes. You know you are in the USA when you can literally buy anything you can think of. Also a sign we are celebrating in the USA is having a 'smash cake'. I had never even heard of one of these before! Growing up in Ireland you had the one cake. If you were lucky, it had your name on it! It's basically for the birthday boy/girl to smash up or plant their face in it. As you can see we got a tiny one for Harry for 3 USD in the supermarket. I was not wasting any money on a cake I knew he wouldn't eat. Jonny and I will eat it later on with our Barry's Tea!
The notebook here was for everyone to write a sweet note or piece of advice for 21 year old Harry. I will wrap it up and give it to him for his 21st Please God!
Pinterest was great for the ideas! As you can see, I used a sharpie pen to draw dots on the Babybel cheese so they could be transformed into ladybugs and I used the same for the bananas to turn them into pirates!
All pom poms, banners, decorations and balloons as well as this cupcake stand were bought at Party City on Fullerton. Super reasonable all just a couple of dollars.
Gold fish snacks in gold flutes! I actually forgot the gold fish and ended up just having cheerios in them on the day instead. I took this photo just before the party at home.
For fun, I decided to print large A4 size photos of Harry throughout the year and add some funny captions and speech bubbles from Harry's mouth. Since Harry was too young for any kind of entertainment, I thought this would at least entertain the adults as they went up and got their food!
I got a bit carried away printing pics of Harry so I cut the faces out and stuck them with scotch tape to the straws! haha! The guests loved this!
Party favours for the mini guests. They each took home a musical instrument. Harry loves music so wanted to share some music with his buddies. Maybe they will start a band someday together.
Tiny minaiture plastic cups for 99c for the kiddies to play beer...I mean milk pong with or simply great to take some snacks in for the way home. 'One for the Road' as they say in Ireland.
Some watermelon for the teething babies!
Mixed Fruit
The play area with a busy basket full of toys for the kids to chew on! haha!
And below are the pics of all of our amazing friends who joined for the day! Sorry if I missed people I didn't get a chance to take a lot but here are the ones I managed to snap. Also, thanks to Yaxi for helping me take photos!! They came out great! I really wish our own family from Ireland could have been here but please God next birthday and many more, we can celebrate together.
Since everyone was admiring Harry's outfit for his birthday, I will share the link below of where I got it. It was on sale for 14.99 imagine! Super cute. I thought the pocket with the little handkerchief was so dapper and so like what Daddy wears.
I thought Harry would be shy and cry when we all sang to him but he sat there with this cute grin on his face the whole time! He loved the attention!
Just coming over to have a bite of mummy's shoulder...as you do.
This is Harry's American grandma, Stephanie. She is Harry's Babysitter who lives in our building. I honestly don't know where we would be right now without her and as you can see from the photos, Harry is very attached!
It all got a bit much for Harry towards the end and he needed a snooze on Stephanie's lap. I know somebody else who likes to fall asleep at parties!
Everyone was asking me did I enjoy the day and the answer is Yes! I enjoyed it so much because guess what? I didn't have to cook! I'm so nervous about cooking for a crowd. The Southern Cut staff went above and beyond to make everyone feel at home. I was delighted that I didn't have to host and could focus on enjoying the company of good friends while cuddling my little birthday boy at the same time. I highly recommend having first birthdays outside the home for that reason!
Thank you so much to each and every one of you not only for being there for his party but for being there for Harry, Jonny and I throughout this whole year and keeping us sane in the madness that is the first year of parenthood! We couldn't have done it without all of you! For those who missed it, we still love you and there will plenty of more in the future Please God.
xoxo