Alan's Rookie of the Year Birthday Party

For Alan's first birthday, I decided to go with a baseball theme. Rob wants Alan to grow up to be a "left-handed hitting, right-handed throwing catcher" because he says that is the best way to get into the majors.

Although we didn't have enough time to play t-ball, I was extremely pleased with the way the party turned out and thought I'd post what I did to plan for it for posterity.

The Venue
I wanted a place where I could rent a pavilion and a ball field together. The idea was to have the party and allow the kids to play t-ball on the field. I thought about Pinkneyville Park because I run past there all the time, but when I called they said the little leaguers would have the fields at the time of year we were looking to rent. We ended up renting the pavilion at Best Friend Park. It was actually perfect for a birthday party, and I may consider it for future parties. It had a grill and bathroom, and it was right next to the playground and the baseball field. The pavilion had a wide open space that we were able to set up the play yard with toys so the babies could play.


The Invitations
The invitations were designed by a fellow August 2010 parent, Jeremi Salveston, who also happens to work for Pixel Perfect Graphic Design. I wanted the invites to look like tickets to a game. We had Alan's 10-month pictures done in Braves attire with a baseball theme. I sent Jeremi a few of the ticket invitations I had found online that I liked. He took Alan's picture and the information for the party, and created the perfect invitation. He was very patient with me as I made little changes here and there. I highly recommend his company for any graphic design needs.




The Decorations
I didn't get too fancy with decorations since I didn't know exactly what the set up was going to look like ahead of time. I had never been to Best Friend Park, so i didn't know if it would be easy to hang streamers or balloons. So I kept it pretty simple. Besides, baseball games don't have a lot of decorations anyway.
There were four decorations that I used: a Simon Field banner, a month-by-month picture banner, a Happy Birthday banner, and some baseballs that were posted around the pavilion.

I had the Simon Field banner made at Vista Print. I tried to make the Simon Field part of it to look as close to the Turner Field sign as possible. I left a space between 'Happy' and 'Birthday' so we could use it in future birthdays if Alan wanted a baseball or sports theme.



I made two month-by-month picture banners that we hung up on the fence next to the pavilion. I first found a picture of a baseball using Google Images and put it into a Word document. I put numbers over the picture to represent the months of Alan's first year. I printed them out, cut them out, and had them laminated so they wouldn't tear. I then bought some fancy paperclip tags from Target and hot-glued them to the bottom of the number balls. I bought some white ribbon and drew the baseball stitches on the ribbon with black and red Sharpie markers. I hot-glued the balls to the ribbon. Finally, I took pictures from each month of Alan's first year and attached them using the paper clips.

I wanted something to decorate his high chair a little without being in the way of the mess I was anticipating with the smash cake. So I bought a simple Happy Birthday banner to put up in front of the chair.



The Food

To go with the baseball theme, the menu consisted of concession stand food: hot dogs, nachos, Cracker Jacks, and peanuts. Rob and Al cooked hot dogs on the grill with a little help from some of the male party guests.






For the smash cake, I made carrot cake in the shape of a baseball. I decorated it to look like the ball was lying in the grass.






The cake for the guests consisted of both a cupcake and a brownie formed into the shape of a hamburger. I had a lot of help from my in-laws (Allison Anderson and Donna Davis) to assemble the cakes. I made vanilla cupcakes and cut them in half to use as the bun. I then took a sheet of brownies and cut the brownies into circles to use as the burger. I made frosting in different colors: red for tomatoes, green for lettuce, and yellow for cheese. I cut the brownies in half so that we could put the cheese in between the burger layers. We added the lettuce on top of the brownie and piped the tomato on top of the lettuce before putting the top bun on. I then made sugar cookies cut out in strips for fries. I added some raw sugar to the top of them to act as salt on the fries. Both the mini double cheese burgers and the fries went into styrofoam containers so each person could have individual burgers and fries.

The Favors
I made different favor bags for babies and for kids who had reached the age where choking was no longer a problem. In the baby favor bag, I put a snack container with Cheerios, a baby Mum-Mum, stickers, a notepad, a pencil, and a squishy baseball. In the kid favor bag I put candy, stickers, a notepad, a pencil, a baseball bouncy ball, a temporary tattoo, and a squishy baseball.

Alan's "favors" (or keepsakes) consisted of a yearbook that I made with the ABC's of his first year and a baseball that everyone at the party signed. For the yearbook, I took each letter of the alphabet and put together some pictures for a topic that started with that letter. For example, A was for aquarium. I put pictures of when Alan went to the Tennessee Aquarium. We asked that all the guests sign the yearbook.

The Attire
I had shirts made for Alan, Rob, and myself. The shirts said Alan's Birthday on the front and had our names and ages on the back. It was hard to find Alan's shirt. There aren't many people who make infant sized raglan shirts. I finally found a place in Illinois called H. P. Tops that makes infant raglan shirts, so I ordered Alan's shirt from them. The shirt turned out great, and I would definitely recommend them to anyone. I got Rob's and mine from Cafe Press. It took me awhile to find a place that would do just two shirts. Most places made you buy a minimum of six shirts, but Cafe Press allows you to do only one if you want. I was less than impressed with the quality of the shirts.



All of the raglan shirts came with three-quarter length sleeves. Knowing that it was going to be a hot day (middle of August in Georgia is no picnic), I asked Rob's mom to shorten Alan's and my sleeves. She did a great job altering the shirts.




The Photographers
If anyone knows me, they know that I LOVE pictures! I knew I was going to be too busy running around to take pictures. One of my friends just started a photography business, so I asked her and her husband to take pictures at the party. Their company is called True Photography, and they did an amazing job! I was particularly fond of this series of pictures with Alan playing with the baseball.


Here are some more pictures from the party.

Alan standing all by himself.
Smash cake
The Aftermath
Alan walking
Future Atlanta Braves catcher?

Although we didn't have enough time to play t-ball, the party was a huge success! I'm very pleased with the end results. Thank you to everyone who made the day special!

To see more pictures, go to Alan's Birthday Party album on facebook.

Happy First Birthday, Booger!

My son turned one last Wednesday, and we spent most of last week celebrating. I'll post about his party separately. I am so happy to be the mother of a one-year-old almost toddler! He is getting more and more independent every day.

Alan could walk if he had the confidence. His motor skills are developed enough that if he would just let go of the one finger he's still holding onto, he would be able to run across the room. But he is still too scared to let go. It won't be much longer before he takes off. We get two or three steps at a time quite frequently now, but he still looks for a hand or grasps onto the nearest surface once he realizes that he's doing it on his own.

Alan's language skills still need a lot of work. He's been chatting for a long time, but the only real words he can say are "Dada" and "Uh-oh." And he calls almost everything and everyone "Dada." He knows a lot of words if we say them though. He can point to my nose, eyes, mouth, hair, teeth, and necklace. He can show me his foot if I ask. He can point to the light, fan, window, table, and picture if we ask where they are. But he can't form any of those into actual words. He knows the signs for milk, all done, and more, and uses them fairly regularly.

Physically, Alan is a tall, thin kid. He weighs 20lbs 7oz, which is the 35th percentile. He is 30.5 inches tall, which is the 75th percentile. And his head is a huge 19 inches, which is the 95th percentile. He has six teeth so far - two on bottom and four on top. He's got plenty of hair, which we had to cut at eleven months to keep it from looking like a mullet. He has pretty big feet and wears a size 5. He can still fit into some 9 month clothing, but is mostly wearing 12 month or bigger now because of his height.

Personally, I have stopped pumping completely, and am so happy about that!! I am still nursing in the morning and at night with no end in sight. I figure I'll let Alan tell me when he no longer wants those sessions, and he seems to be pretty interested in keeping them as of right now.

I'm in the process of training for the Outer Banks Marathon in November. I'm officially starting my "get rid of the baby fat" diet today and increasing my exercise routine to include more ab work and strength training. I am determined to get my body back!