Party Planning...Sigh

I imagined that planning Mason's birthday party would be oodles of fun, but being in a state of limbo has thrown a wrench in our plans. Compounding the issue is my lack of commitment to a theme. I have thrown around dozens of potential themes (most with extravagant budgets), but I finally settled on a simple party in the park for our immediate family and a few friends (ahem...those of you who are familiar with my family will immediately recognize that just this basic guest list includes more than 40 people, so Mason's first birthday will not be a small, intimate affair). Big party, but laidback plans. I decided to save some of my more elaborate, expensive themes for future parties when Mason is able to be more involved.

So...the plan is to have an easy-breezy (early) Saturday afternoon party at the Red Barn (the pavilion at Everett Park back home). The kids have plenty of room and lots of playground equipment to explore, and Chris is planning to borrow the giant traveling grill from Tom to grill hotdogs and hamburgers (I'm happy to leave that in his oh-so-capable hands). I'm making the cake (Chris groaned when I showed him the picture of what I want to make--he dreads the meltdown I'll have if it doesn't turn out as I envision--hehe! He'd feel more pain if I had a pro do it and shelled out $300 for a sculpted cake), and we're keeping it simple gift-wise. Mason has soooo much already, and we have always agreed that we don't Mason to be one of those kids who expects gads of gifts for every holiday. I'm holding off on planning the party favors, decorations, etc., until we move back home next week, so I'll be able to devote more time and energy to making Mason's first birthday extra special then.

I ordered the CUTEST invitations (yay, tinyprints.com!), and those should be in next week, so I'll have to get on sending those out asap. I'm using the patterns from the invitations as my inspiration for the decorations and the birthday cake. Oh, and I bought a onesie and a bib for the birthday boy to wear months ago, so I guess I better find those and make sure they go with us to Maryville next Wednesday.

Poor Chris. He's so excited to have his family back together again, but he'll be less than enthused that a good portion of his time at night (and don't forget weekends!) will be consumed by party minutiae for the next few weeks. Sorry, babe, but you signed up for this!