Happy First Birthday Jackson!

Jackson’s first birthday party was absolutely amazing! I knew I wanted it to be happy and fun so I went with the theme “he’s a happy ONE!” and used Gray Malin’s “Party at the Parker II” as inspiration for a colorful, balloon-filled party!

We knew we couldn’t have it at our house because we have some construction underway, so we checked out the city parks, but realized that with the application and fee, there was also a no alcohol policy– which clearly wouldn’t work for a first birthday– obviously the kids won’t remember and it’s more for the parents! So we opted for a party at a local taphouse and it. was. amazing! Sacyard Community Taphouse was absolutely wonderful to work with and we had the best time!

We made the balloon garland and I was in love with it! I purchased the garland streamer from Amazon and we blew up the balloons and made it in about an hour the night before– Rob may have been a bit light-headed afterwards! I called out colors and sizes and put it together so it was ready to go in the morning! It fit in my Durango perfectly too! (I love my car times a million!)

We hung the garland and set up the table with mom’s desserts, plenty of snacks for the kiddos, and sunglasses of all colors for them too! Jackson loves to play with my sunglasses so I thought it’d be fun for the kids to have some too! They all got to pick their favorite color when they arrived– they were such a hit and an easy Amazon purchase!

We had the absolute cutest cake and smash cake, cake pops and macarons from my mom who owns Sweet Celebrations. The cakes and cake pops were confetti cake and we had raspberry lemon and mint chocolate macarons– they were sooo good! There were M&Ms, pretzels, applesauce packets and fresh fruit in rainbow colors!

Jackson took his smash cake straight to the face and it was hilarious to watch! This was his first bit of sugar and he seemed to enjoy it!

We also had tacos! We’ll definitely have a lot of tacos around his birthday over the years since it’s a couple days away from Cinco de Mayo, but hey, we’re not complaining! We had a local taco guy come and grill up some amazingness (along with some bacon-wrapped hot dogs for the kiddos) and had the best afternoon.

We had friends there we hadn’t seen in forever and are so thankful for their love of our little one! I felt like everyone that came was greeted with an over-exuberant, “Omg, yay! I’m so excited you’re here, thank you for coming!” It was all straight from the bottom of my heart and Rob and I couldn’t have been more thankful to have everyone there. There were almost more kids than adults and it was absolutely adorable watching them all play together and hearing them laugh!

We also had my book that I wrote for Jackson that had just arrived and am so excited to share it with everyone! If you’re interested in one, they’re $25 + shipping (unless you’re local and we can hand-off in-person) and you can find me on Venmo @lori-brazier with an aqua underwater image! All in all, it was an incredible time being surrounded by family and friends that adore our little love. You definitely can’t beat that and we were happily exhausted afterwards and wish we could have passed out like Jackson! Happy birthday baby! We love you!