We Like To Party.

I know that having a big one year old party is kind of pointless. Your child is not going to recall any of it. That's why a one year old party is and should be nothing but a celebration for the parents making it through a year of complete unknown territory and having a happy thriving child at the end of it right? Right! We don't get the opportunity to host parties as often as I'd like (#restaurantlife) so when we do-we love to throw a good one and have the perfect space to do so! A lot of hard work went into this party and I feel sorry for those that had to deal with my all my ideas (Seneca Hope this is for you kid) but the ending result was perfect and incredibly memorable so documentation of this great event is a must. 






Most stressful part of a party? The theme. I'm not one for the total babyish ideas…not that there is anything wrong with babyish things I mean because after all the party is for a baby but I just prefer to go a little different route. That route I ended up being drawn to was a vintage travel theme- Nico being a world traveler and all I thought it was an appropriate direction to go. ;-)

The main attraction (besides this kid->) was the cake table with cloud lanterns and an airplane suspending above it. Along with giant "Nico" balloons. Of course there was an overload of balloons (which I never got a picture of-dang it) because who doesn't love balloons and is it really even a party without them? Thank you to my sister and sister in law Christina for helping with the set up and decorating!

I had a bunch of other grand ideas for decorating but last minute it did not work out. I'll save you all the boring details but I could have either chosen to have a panic attack over my ideas never transpiring or calmly realize no one (except my sister) knew the extent of my over the top of ideas and just let it go. I wisely chose the latter. Although my friend Karen totally saved me without even knowing at the time she saved me. She put together the cutest little slide show for me the day of the party. Now that is a friend! My sister hacked a way to have it on permanent repeat so I popped it up on the iPad and put it in a shadow box and it looked like I really had my crap together! Enjoy it below (or here if the preview doesn't work on some mobile devices). Thank you Karen!

In true Italian style our food was not the average one year old birthday party fare. Unfortunately, it was eleven pm before I realized I only had 3 mere bites of the fabulous food because I just do not know how to be the relaxed hostess with the mostess. I'm the slightly crazed making sure everyone is taken care of one. And you'd really assume we would know how to plan the appropriate amount of food for the number of guest we entertained. Wrong. According to some of them they took enough leftovers home to feed them the rest of the week. A special shout out and a big thank you to my husband and mother-in-law for spending their day off in the kitchen preparing this great meal! 

Dessert consisted of beautiful cloud-like cupcakes and a giant cupcake smash cake. We also had an array of homemade Italian desserts from Fannita's Bakery-and not one single of these Italian treats were left! 

A NiNi Cupcake? All of Grace's favorite things in one! 

I think most of you caught the big sing off but in case you didn't here is where it is posted-it's just too cute not to share! 

https://instagram.com/p/8wu1PnJN3q/?taken-by=jlove0623

He LOVED the attention and clapped along and after we blew out the candles he figured out if he clapped then everyone else would start clapping after him. He did this about 5 times while his monkeys (all of us) played along.

My amazing sister made an amazing milestone chart that we printed poster size to display as well.

Since I never did an "official" 12 month post I thought I'd quick throw in some additional milestones that our big boy is up to! Well, he is wearing mostly 18 month old clothing and wearing a size 5 shoe. He has 4 chompers. He knows how to use his fork like a pro. He says "duck" and pronounces the "D" so well that I'm sure it won't be mistaken for another 4 letter word. He makes kissing noises. He's obsessed with pears to the point if his father walks past the pear trees without picking one for him there may be tears. Speaking of tears-Nico threw his first fit at Target over a cheap plastic cart-so his TT bought him a real metal baby cart for his birthday which now he is crazy over. He is almost walking but we are smart enough not to rush it. He loves to say "no" and has multiple varying tones of the word. Nico loves to dance and loves his Kindermusik class. And he's the kid that is going around hugging and kissing everyone else in class. This is where I explain to the rest of the parents-"He's Italian. We hug and kiss a lot." He points to his nose and ears and eyes but only when he wants to. Nico also has learned how to bite-which I blame on his dad. But truth be told I'm known to bite when I get excited too. And most of all he is the answer to my prayers. 

Thank you to all of our family (including our Luigi Family) that were able to come and help celebrate our special boy. He is so blessed and so are we. 

Credits:
Invites, Milestone Poster, Menu, Banners, King Hat, Bow Tie, Clouds and basically the creative effort behind all my ideas- Seneca Avina (She Freelances Folks! Contact her for any of your needs!)
1 Year Old Photos - Karen Ann Photography - Make sure to "Like" her FB page too for more gorgeous photos!
Nico's Blue Vest & Pants Set Outfit- Caterina Bimbi Carini
Nico's "Drink The Wild Air" Outfit- Crowns and Coroknits
Smash Cake & Cupcakes- Bakery On State
Italian Desserts- Fannita Bakery
Personalized Cupcake Décor- Tailored Decor 
Airplane Bottle Openers Party Favors- Kate Aspen
Party Photographs- Nycz Photography and other friends that supplied pictures!
Venue- Luigi's Italian Restaurant

In my next life I want to be a party planner and photography prop coordinator (Is that such thing? Now it is).

Now on to those Thank You cards…...

XO. 

JLOVE AKA "Mommy"