Mama in the City

Last weekend we hosted a small celebration for Josie's 1st birthday and it went spectacularly well. By the end of the evening we felt the love! Back in 2009 when I planned Ben's 1st birthday party we had a largish guest list, a bunch of transportation of party goods (hot food!) to another location, along with a bit more chaos. This time around I wanted a special celebration but I also wanted it to be low key, stress free and casual. Which is exactly what we got! I really hate it when I get all uppity about a special occasion and vowed to try and change things. I just wanted to enjoy the moment and not get caught up in the fuss.

The planner in me did not let the little things go unnoticed and I quite enjoyed putting the pieces of Josie's celebration together the month before. I invited all of our local family along with 3 special maternity nurses to join the party. How amazing is it to have some of the woman, that were one of the first people to meet Josie, at her birthday party? It was awesome and it was perfect!

In an attempt to curb my own stress I wanted to have someone else be in charge of the birthday cake. I connected with Tessa of Vancouver's Sweet Bake Shop, and ordered up a chocolate layered cake with a mix of strawberry and vanilla bean icing. She also made some rose icing cookies that I gifted as party favours. Tessa was so fabulous to work with and Josie really enjoyed her piece of chocolate birthday cake. I love supporting local businesses and will be ordering more cakes from her in the future!



I have a love affair with all things Etsy and so naturally I gravitated to the site when I was looking for a few personalized birthday items to make this party special. I found the perfect birthday banner for the occasion from the Seattle Etsy shop Get The Party Started. The quality was perfect and I can reuse this banner for future birthday parties. The owner of the shop was easy to deal with. There is just something about heavy card stock that makes me happy. I wish I had a crafty (patient) bone in my body but I do not, so I am glad for Etsy.








I might be pulling a bit of an Oprah here but I think every event should have fresh flowers. I connected with local boutique flower shop Queensberry Flower Company and gave them my requests for a smallish flower arrangement and was so happy with the final product.




The birthday girl only lasted an hour of her party before she needed to go to bed. We dined on my husband's fabulous homemade lasagna (he made the pasta from scratch), ate cake and had a nice evening together in celebration of family, and of love and of each other. I feel content and eager knowing that there is so many people that love our dear Josephine.







Of course, nothing quite says a party like a fancy party frock! Bought month in advance because that is just how I roll with my tendency for preplanning. This was a perfect first birthday celebration and I'm so happy with how everything worked together.