I never thought I’d feel so emotional about my baby turning one.  I always hear moms talking about their kid turning one and think, “Okay, it’s not really that big of a deal.”

But it is.  In so many ways.

I mean, first off, I survived a year of parenting.  I think that alone is worth a party.

There were days over the last year that just dragged on, but then somehow they turned into weeks and before I knew it, I had a one year old.  One who is walking and doing tricks and constantly making me laugh.

I keep thinking back to a year ago when my water broke, when we walked the halls of the hospital, when I trusted my body and when I became a mother.  I think about that call I made to my mom to tell her I was in labor and how I started crying thinking about how my life was about to change, while she told me I could do this.

My life has stayed the same in some ways, and simultaneously changed in every way.

I sometimes forget that I’m a mom.  When I go to work or when I am out without Adelaide.  I’m just another normal person on the street, except I’m not.  I’m a mother to a precious girl.  A one year old.

I decided a while back that the party theme would be donuts.  And yes, donuts can be a party theme.  Why not?  We served donuts from Doughnut Plant which were a huge hit.  Since our party was at noon, I wanted to serve brunch type foods.  We had also rented out a space, so I couldn’t serve any hot foods.  I finally decided on donuts (of course), bagels, donut shaped cake pops, chicken salad on croissants and fresh fruit cups.  And booze.

The majority of our party was adults, so we set up a bloody mary bar (so much fun picking ingredients for this- even made some bacon which was a hit), mimosas (with orange and grapefruit juice), water and coffee.  I had a dream a few days before the party that we forgot celery for the bloody mary bar.  The horror!

We also asked that our friends not bring gifts.  We live in a tiny apartment and just don’t have the space for extra things.  Plus we wanted to just have our friends all gather and come have a good time without have to worry about picking out a gift for a one year old.  Our friends are so generous though, and literally every person asked if they could bring something or help out in some way.  In hindsight I might have asked them to bring food or toiletries for the shelter my church supports so that they didn’t feel awkward showing up empty handed.

The room was filled with our friends and family who love us and love Adelaide.  To look every direction and see the people that have helped you raise your daughter is a feeling like no other.  I know how lucky I am to have had the support I’ve had over the last year and I’m eternally grateful for every single one of those people.  It really does take a village. I was hesitant to have a smash cake at the party for a few reasons.  We’d have to get a high chair to the party location, Adelaide would of course get messy, but how messy?  I decided to suck it up and go for it.  The cake was made at a local bakery (I just asked for a plain white 4″ cake) and I put donut shaped cake pops on top.

I brought a change of clothes for her and a ton of wipes. 

Turns out we didn’t really need them because girlfriend doesn’t want any cake.

She was not at all interested in the cake.  She picked off the donuts one by one and tossed them to the ground.  She wouldn’t even touch the cake, so finally Jon put his finger in the icing and gave her a taste.  She was still skeptical.  Finally, we got her a fork and she took a few bites off of a fork and then tried to stand up and get out of her chair.  Basically, it was the cleanest smash cake you’ve ever seen.  She didn’t wear a bib and didn’t get a speck of icing on her clothes.  She kills me. I still can’t believe I have a one year old.  I’m so lucky to be her mama.