I'm emotional, so I'm sorry for how long this will be. I will have everything linked at the end if you just want to skip down 😂
To be honest, this birthday made me sad- and not just in the "my baby's growing up" kind of way. Of course, I felt this kind of sadness too, but I felt a little robbed of the joy you're supposed to get that counteracts that sadness and makes you excited about planning the party and celebrating your little one.
A quick note: I'm sorry if this sounds melodramatic and I am aware that there are much bigger problems caused by this past year, but sometimes the little problems need space too. And grieving the normalcy and joy that we should've had during these milestones is still valid amongst the bigger grief we, the collective we, are experiencing every day.
Let's back up a little bit.
Piper turned One only a few weeks after the start of the pandemic. I started planning her party in January 2020 and had everything set and ready to go by March for her party on her birthday, Saturday, April 4, 2020.
The perfect first birthday party. A party on her actual birthday. On a Saturday. Perfect.
About a month and a half out, we started to get worried about having to downsize our guest list. We had invited around 30 people and, as the weeks went on, we were being told we weren't allowed to gather in groups larger than 100, then larger than 50, then 20, then 10.
Then on March 13, 2020, only three weeks before her party, we went under lockdown.
On her birthday, April 4, 2020, we ended up having a tiny "party" at our house. Just me, Piper, Vance, and his mom. I made her a cake and a balloon arch and we shared a video of us singing her "Happy Birthday" on Facebook live. We had fun. I put all the other decorations into a closet and thought "maybe we can have her party the next week". Then the following week, I thought the same. Then a month later I thought "maybe we will celebrate her turning 18 months over the summer". It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that she would not be getting a party anytime soon.
It really shouldn't have been a big deal, but I was still sad. I had all of these expectations for her birthday as I planned her party for the four months leading up. I thought about the decorations, the cake, the outfits, the balloons. I thought about having fun with our friends and watch Piper play with all the other babies she was finally starting to "catch up" to. I thought about her smashing her cake and opening her presents.
I grieved the loss of all of those expectations for the next year as we hunkered down, masked up, and stayed home.
Then, in January 2021, I started to think about her second birthday. Would we be able to have a party this year? How do we choose who can/can't come? How do we make sure it's safe?
Thankfully in February, my mother-in-law and I had the privilege of getting our first vaccine, then our second in March. Slowly, most of our closest family and friends were able to get vaccinated. This made me hopeful.
So we decided to have a *very* small party and I decided to keep the same theme from last year. We changed it slightly from "Piper's first trip around the sun" to "TWO the moon and back". I designed the theme around this party I was inspired by last year. Once I found her party dress, though, I knew I wanted to change the colors of the party to match. So we went for a mauve/silver outer space theme. I had all of the decorations still stored, but I had to buy more balloons, since that was the only thing I actually used last year. It actually worked out pretty well, because I found this amazing balloon arch from Soiree Love. It matched everything perfectly and it ended up being way better than the one I had planned myself last year.
Another silver lining of delaying the party an entire year was that we had time to build our new garage. This gave us the perfect space to hang out in an open, well-ventilated area, where we could sit and eat and keep our distance. It also gave me a lot more room to decorate! However, since the decorations were going outside, I couldn't put them up until that day, and I was a little rushed to hang everything before the party started. I didn't even get to hang up her gigantic rocket I made her and stored for an entire year. *facepalm* But, the decorations I was able to hang looked great and it all ended up matching way better than I expected. AND!! Piper's birthday dress still fit her a whole year later (probably better than it would have last April).
Anyway, it was really, really great and I'm so glad we were finally able to celebrate her, but I'm also kind of happy it's over. Here's some pictures from the big day!
PRODUCT LINKS (commissionable links included):
DIY & MISC. ITEMS
Planets: I cut the planets out of cardboard and painted them and added glitter
Hairclip: I made her hairlip out of felt and embroidered the faces to match her dress
Dress: From Gymboree but I actually ordered it from an online resale shop. You can still find some on Ebay, etc.
Now, let's party!
♡Arlynnda