First Birthday Party REWIND

Yes. This is more fall stuff.

Atticus. My little Atticus. He turned ONE back on October 9th.

You may remember his invitation:

His party was a Goodnight Moon theme. The kids (and a few adults) even wore pajamas!

Decorations were simple. (They always are at my house.) I drew likenesses of the two framed pictures from the storybook and hung them up.

Then Noah and I made a "fire" for the fireplace to look like the one in the story. And perhaps my favorite thing was a tiny clothes rack Paul helped me make from a large one that Danyelle, my college roommate from freshman year, let me have. (She responded to a Facebook plea.) I clothes-pinned mittens (well, okay...many were actually gloves...because for whatever reason, I had trouble finding mittens) and socks to the rack. These were the party favors.

The cake table had "a comb and a brush and a bowl full of mush," a single red balloon, a "light," and a phone I borrowed from my friend Leanne, who also responded to a Facebook request. (Ah, Facebook. What did I ever do without you?) These are all items from the story, by the way.

The cake was a full moon, which I placed in a cake box with a window. It was meant to look like the window in the little bunny's room. I painted the cake box red like the window frame in the book and even made a striped "curtain" for it.

For supper I served "mush," which was two different kinds of thick, blended homemade soup. Lentil bean and tomato. Yum!

After supper, we did the cake thing. Atticus's "smash cake" was a crescent moon-shaped cupcake. And LOOK, I just so happened to have found a red balloon candle. I just love it when little details like this work out.

Atticus's little friend Matthew came by.

Funny thing about Matthew. His parents are from my hometown, but they live in Little Rock like us now. I'll never forget being on the phone with my mom (before we had told anyone we were pregnant with #4) and her telling me that my friend Leslie was expecting a baby in October. I was thinking, "Oh, my goodness! So am I, but I can't tell you yet!!" Anyway, fast forward several months when we were just getting to Postpartum after having Atticus, and wouldn't you know it? Paul ran into Matthew's daddy out in the hallway. Leslie was in labor! Matthew was born on the 10th, so we were all at the hospital together. (And actually, some friends from college were there having their baby, too!) So funny!!
Meanwhile, back at the party...

In addition to a pair of mittens, each child took home a red balloon tied to a little goody bag. I used cellophane bags with stars printed on them to wrap up homemade sugar cookies: a star and a moon, of course.

One of my favorite kid friends and I read the story to Atticus. 'Cause he's cool that way. He loves books, and he knew the story well.

We all had a great time visiting...and...well, just being in our pajamas, I think.

Atticus was so happy to see his family and friends and to eat his mush (and let's not forget about the cake). It was a happy birthday indeed.

Golly, I love this kid.