Saturday, May 31, 2014

{First Birthday} Under the Sea Party: Guests and Photo Booth Pictures

I am continuing on with my (maybe a little too excessive amount of) posts detailing Myles' 1st birthday. So far, I wrote about picking a theme and his photo shoot and what we did on his actual birthday. This post is the first of his party. I have tons of pictures that I want to share on my blog for family and friends to see. Because of that, these first couple of party posts are going to be extremely picture heavy and most likely not that exciting to my blog-world readers and friends. I am apologizing in advance for this, but they are important to me and the main purpose of my blog (capturing memories of my son). So please bear with me and I promise I will be getting to the good stuff soon! Cake and presents, games and food, decor and all of the tutorials should be out by next week! But for now enjoy some Myles' cuteness mixed in with family fun!

  When I shared what what we did on his actual birthday, I talked about how we decided to go back to Illinois for Myles' first birthday, even though we had just moved to California 5 weeks before. This was a no-brainer choice for me because I just had to celebrate Myles' first year with all of our family. The long days of traveling was no fun, but it was 110% worth it to be able to celebrate such a meaningful milestone in my life with all my loved ones. Plus, I knew we wouldn't be back until Christmas (4 months away), so I wanted to get everyone together before we would be gone again (for several this time). The party was everything I could have wanted and more. Next to the birth day of Myles, his 1st birthday party was the second best day of my life. It was filled with so much love, joy, and pride for me; it was truly an incredible day. And it was mostly due to the fact that all sides of our families (Mark's family, my dad's side, my mom's side, and my step-dad's side) showed up to support, love, and spend time with my son. It was particularly a very special event because my step-dad's mother, sister, and her family were all in town from Texas and got to meet Myles for the first time.  


 I also have to give a huge shout out to my mother for everything she did to help with this party; I mean one amazing woman right there! Not only her, but tons of other family helped bring everything together and I cannot thank them enough. (When I get to my tutorials and DIYs I will give more details on who did what). 

This post is pictures of all the guests hanging around and then all of our photo booth pictures below that.

My handsome little man!

 My best friend from High School (and beyond) Megan with her little girl McKenna, who is 8 months older than Myles.

 They both loved the balloons the best!
 

Myles and his Uncle Matt

Myles with his cousins Ryann and Aubrey 
(those little girls love him and he just soaks up all the attention)

Top left: Myles' Uncle Matt and cousin Ryann
Top right: Mark's family, including his grandma Nyla
Bottom: More of Mark's family; his mom, sisters, and aunt

Top: My dad and Uncle Mark with my great aunt and daughter
Bottom: My cousin and upgraded aunt to Myles Melissa

Top left: Younger cousins playing on the trampoline
Top right: Megan and McKenna eating :)
Bottom: My best friend from childhood (her kids and husband are around somewhere!)

Top left and right: More of my cousins' kids
Bottom left: My awesome brother and his then girlfriend
Bottom right: My aunts Mary and Sue and Uncle Scott

Overview of all the guests!

If you read my first post where I talked about picking a theme, then you already know I decided to go with Under the Sea. It was so fun coming up with ideas and putting everything together. My mom and I had been planning for months and to see it all come together (with the help of my kind and giving family) was a very proud moment for me. This was the first party I ever threw and I can honestly say I was so happy with how it turned out. I wouldn't have done anything differently and that is saying a lot coming from a super type A, perfectionist! One of the DIY projects my family worked on before we came back was a super awesome shark photo booth! I got the idea from this picture I found on Pinterest and then they put their own little spin on it. I love how it turned out! The teeth are my favorite part! (It will be a part of my tutorial post coming soon.)
Unfortunately, this is right about the time the camera on my phone started acting goofy and would randomly take blurry pictures. So sorry for the quality of some of them (luckily this won't happen this year since I now have my big girl camera)!
 

Photo Booth Pictures:

The Birthday Boy!

Mommy and Daddy with the birthday boy! 
Love his face in the first one.. he was shocked too!

Myles with daddy and his cousin Ryann
Mommy and Myles

Myles with his Uncle Chris (or Unca Tick as Myles calls him)

Of course I had to get in on the fun!

Grandma and Myles
Grandpa and Grandma (with a little creeper Myles)

Left: My cousin Melissa (promoted to Myles' aunt) and her dad Mark
Top right: Myles' great aunt Darla, great-grandma Noreen, and cousin Rheana
Top left: Myles' cousins Ayson, Ryann, and Aubrey


Do you pick themes for your kids' birthday parties? If so, what has been your favorite?



10 comments :

  1. That photo booth is too cute! Great idea!

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  2. Desiree @ Macke MonologuesJune 2, 2014 at 1:20 PM

    What a perfect gathering to celebrate the big day!
    And, oh my gosh, the photo booth is ADORABLE!!

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  3. We really did! It was a day I will never forget, and I can't wait for his birthday this year. Two should be pretty fun and I have lots of stuff planned out already! Kid's birthdays are awesome! At least until they are old enough to tell you what they want and make everything complicated lol!

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  4. Thanks! I was totally impressed with it when I saw what my family came up with. I just showed them a picture and they came up with one I liked even better! I really like the idea of photo booths for parties because then you can get pictures of all the guests and most of the time they are silly ones!

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  5. I think themes are fun for younger kids bc they get all excited when they see the things that are their favorite. I'm planning a Toy Story theme this year bc Myles loves Buzz! He's really likes the minions too and so do I. They are so funny! It is definitely nice to have the help of grandparents. My family did so much to help out. I like going back home for his birthday. It is worth the travel to be with family. Thanks for the always sweet comments :)

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  6. Wow, what a great idea for the photo booth! Pinning!

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  7. We totally lucked out and it was a beautiful day too! You never know with the Midwest how the weather will be and being a summer baby he's got the perfect month for a water theme birthday! My family did a great job on the photo booth, I was totally impressed and loved it too!

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  8. Thanks! I have a got the idea from a pin I saw, but my parents just did their own twist on it and I think it turned out great! I actually like it better than the inspiration picture! I am going to talk more about it and how it was made in a future post, but if you have any questions let me know! It worked perfectly for out Under the Sea theme. I think that was the first thing I thought of to do and then everything else just came together! Thanks for stopping by!

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  9. Well there was one mess up, but I was saving that for the DIY post! And honestly that cake was a bit of a fail.. I needed it to set for was longer than I had time and then I couldn't get it out of the mold and THEN I wanted to put it out so people could see it before he ate it, but then it started melting.. duh it's jello.. I don't know why I didn't think of it! But I got a couple good pictures before it started slumping over lol And don't worry I still love the saying off the hook! I mean we have to keep our cool saying alive.. the ones now are weird and don't make sense..haha.. Thanks so much for the sweet comments. It really meant so much to me that I put tons of time and effort into it. And btw thanks for always being such a supportive momma and bloggy friend. You are always encouraging and put a smile on my face :)

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  10. A first birthday under the sea party is a delightful choice for young guests. The ocean-themed decorations, games, and costumes make it a magical experience for kids. Slow Device Streaming Creating a memorable celebration with sea creatures and underwater adventures.

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