Birthday Party Invitations (and Some More Rambling)

The invitations are done! Not all mailed yet, but done. I spent a lot of time cutting and stamping and tying bows, but I loved it. Now I'm eager for the days when Hadley and I can do crafts together at the kitchen table. (I'm saving all of the wallpaper samples I get at work--perks of being the editor of a home-design publication--for our craft box. I'm not sure what we'll do with them, but certainly they'll inspire some sort of project.)

So here are the invites to our "bug bash."

We'll mail the rest tomorrow, and then it's party-planning time. Of course, top of my list is food. I'm thinking we need this pan to make cupcakes, and maybe we'll have some kind of cleverly named punch. (Beetle juice? Ha!) I'm thinking about trying to find bug-shaped cookie cutters and making PB&J sandwiches for the kids, then cutting them into cute shapes. (Any of you grown-up attendees who are readers, fear not: We'll have bug-free fare for the adults--burgers, potato salad and other "normal" picnic treats.)

I bought a few adorable (cheap) tin buckets in bright colors, and I'm going to make little signs that say "Hadley's 1st birthday" and stick them in the buckets. They'll be the centerpieces for the picnic tables. The picnic site is right next to a playground, so we'll probably have one or two games for the older kids--pin the wing on the ladybug, anyone?--but I'm thinking that they will want to run around the playground for as long as possible. That, and stuff their faces with butterfly-shaped cupcakes.

I cannot believe how excited I am about this party...

And...every parent says it, but I have to repeat it: I cannot believe my child is going to be a year old. In some ways, I feel like I just went back to work, but it's been almost nine months. (In that time, I could have grown another baby! Holy bad idea, Batman.) Some days, we hit our groove. Some days, we barely find our way out from under piles of (usually clean) laundry. I suspect it will be this way for a very long time, but I wouldn't want it any other way. The irony is that for all of the busy-ness and exhaustion, I feel tremendous peace. Our life together is good. Nuts, but good.

And in a couple of weeks, we'll celebrate that goodness when Hadley turns one. So here's my confession (and any parent willing to tell the truth will say the same thing): First birthdays aren't for kids. They're for moms and dads, who are feeling 1) happy to have survived the first year and 2) overwhelmed by deep, pure gratitude for their children.

We're disguising our party as a bug-themed bash, but really, it's a holy-cow-she's-ours-and-we're-crazy-in-love-with-her party.

But that was a bit too long to put on the invitation.