A Monsterous Affair

Yesterday was Beckett's first ever birthday party. First ever. He's been alive for a whole year. What do you do when you keep your child alive and well for a whole year? You celebrate! Monster style.

First you invite all your friends.

Then you decorate.

 

 

The key to decorating for a monster party is to googly-eye everything: picture frames, drink dispenser, serving spoons, family dog...everything.

Also, check the cupcake picture. No, I didn't let the 3rd grade class at church decorate those. I did it all by my big girl self. I had a sobering realization that my dreams of opening my own cupcakery will probably not come to fruition.

Double also - see the last picture? I thought that sewing 20 party favors (14 more than needed, just in case random children started wandering in from the streets) would be so fun and quick. It was neither of those things. But it was fun to let the babes pick out a monster to "adopt"*.

After you decorate, you PARTY!

 
And, since it's your party, you can cry if you want to.

(And make all of your party guests cry, while you sit on your throne and watch the hysteria.)

One of my favorite parts of the party was our Korean birthday tradition, compliments of Steve Chan, or resident Korean friend. 

 

We set out an assortment of items for Beckett to choose from, each item representing his future. He had his choice between doctor, computer genius, regular genius, rich, long life, athlete, or preacher. He went straight for the ball of yarn, so clearly he's choosing long life to accomplish all of the above.

(This was a seriously fun tradition. We encouraged all of the babies to play. Ephraim and Knox are both going to be preachers, though, so it will be awkward in the future deciding which congregation to attend.)

After our Korean festivities: cake time! 

 

 

And shortly after the cake, everyone went home and we crashed.

All in all, it was a fantastic first ever birthday. And I'd be lying if I said it wasn't the cutest party of all time. Well...maybe not all time, but it was pretty cute. 

We have been blessed beyond measure by our friends and family over the past year. Here's to many more birthdays with our favorite firstborn!

...

Oh, still here? Good. I have a few party bloopers.

1. Beckett walked over while the artichoke dip was coming out of the oven and stuck his hand on the open door. It took him a while to cry, so I'm fairly certain it burned his palm a tiny bit, but not bad enough to leave blisters. A horribly scary moment. I would have been really sad if we spent his birthday party at the ER.

2. The veggie tray we bought at Sam's approximately 1 hour before the festivities began was bad. Like, really rotten. The veggies were so stanky that not only did we trash the whole tray, we had to light multiple candles and spray ungodly amounts of air freshener to try and mask the thick poop smell filling the entry of the house minutes before our party monsters arrived. Nothing says, "Welcome to the party! Please, come and have some food we made (/bought)!" quite like the smell of rancid vegetables. In short, Sam's Club tried to ruin our Monsterous Affair.

 3. Please scroll back up and check out the picture of the party hat fiasco again.

*You can have a totally cute, inexpensive birthday bash by getting crafty. The Monsterous Affair is proof. Most of the decorations I made, others I bought on clearance at Walmart, or at the dollar spot at Target. Special thanks to Momma Ned for helping me decorate. She's awesome. Also, I got the idea of the tissue box monsters from here and the adopt-a-monster from here. Clever folks, I tell ya.