First Birthday Party

For Cyrus's first birthday party, I decided that the theme would be simply "Cyrus's favorites."

During the 'pre-party' before guests arrived, the family came over and we watched videos of Cyrus from when he was a newborn, and then when guests started arriving, we put on a playlist of Cyrus's favorite songs as background music. It includes such melodies as "La Chona," "The Drill," "Caribbean Blue," "Can't Help Falling in Love" by Elvis, and "Sergio el Bailador." Basically since he was born, it's been a well-accepted fact that if Cyrus is crying, all you have to do is turn on one of these songs and he calms down instantly and is able to see reason (to the extent that babies are reasonable). You can safely assume that both my car and my parents' car has a "Cyrus Playlist" available for when it's needed. So of course we needed his background music at the party!

Our main dish was BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, as that is definitely a favorite of his, and I joked that I'm glad oatmeal isn't his favorite food or the party menu would have been very bland. We actually fed him before the party began so that he wouldn't be hungry during the party and could instead wander around happily while everyone else ate. We also had chips and veggies and a dip that got a lot of compliments but I made it from a mix so I can hardly take credit for it! :P And lots of fruit, and brownies, because I love brownies.

I got a sparkler 1 for his cake instead of a candle because when I saw sparklers, I thought that was really cool, plus....it's not like he can blow out a candle on his own, anyways!

He was very mystified/intrigued by the cake and the singing, and took his birthday boy responsibilities seriously, if his facial expressions are any indication.

He was very happy when we put him in the high chair with his cake, but didn't actually eat any of it, just mostly looked at it and poked it a little bit. Then Sarah and some of her friends put on black lipstick and that was way more interesting than a piece of cake.

Then...it was time for the piñata! Angel had insisted that Cyrus's birthday party required a piñata so I made one the old fashioned way, with a balloon and newspaper and flour paste, and decorated it with green crepe paper.

Cyrus enjoyed his turn at hitting the piñata  and loved watching everyone else take a turn, but when all the kids and teenagers had had their chance, I went up to take a turn and that was not okay! As soon as Cyrus saw me hitting it, he burst into tears--this is not appropriate behavior for his mother!

We had more than 20 people for his party--all people who have played a big role in Cyrus's first year of life and who love him very much--a good handful of them were teens and preteens, haha! Cyrus is not age-discriminatory when it comes to making friends.

I think I will plan to do a birthday party with friends once every 2 or 3 years, and other birthdays just do some outing as a family. In my own family, we never had birthday parties with friends when I was little, just with family. All my great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins would gather together. But parties of that sort aren't possible when you live so far away from most everyone who's related to you by blood, and having a party with the "family" of all ages that has been a part of Cyrus's life from the beginning was very special. He got some very sweet and thoughtful presents, including a bulletin board all about Cyrus, with printed out photos and growth stats from his first year, nicely designed and handmade by two of his young friends (well, I guess, to him they are "older friends").

Happy birthday, little man! 

How do you celebrate birthdays in your family?