Wilder's Airplane Birthday Party

I had so much fun planning and putting together Wilder's airplane-themed first birthday party. Although a fair amount of stress went into it, it was exciting and rewarding to see my plans and preparations realized and to see everyone enjoying themselves that day. Once we got everything set up, I was able to relax and enjoy the moment (thanks in part to my insistence on hiring a friend to photograph the occasion -- she took the huge task of picture-taking off my plate and documented the day so well). The weather could not have been better -- 80 degrees and sunny -- one of the rare days like that in this cold, rainy month.

Wilder in his airplane shirt 

I made for him

Wilder loved being the center of attention and it was so special for me to look around that day and see many of the people who have loved and supported us throughout Wilder's first year gathered to celebrate him with us. I missed my dad that day and thought about how much he would have loved being there. There was definitely a hole in the party where he would have been but I felt him there still and I know that he was watching and celebrating his grandson in Heaven. We so enjoyed having my mom, my brother and his wife, Paul's dad and his girlfriend, and Paul's youngest sister there. The fact that they had come from so far away just to be there for our son made the day so special for us. They were a huge help too getting everything to the park and setting up -- thank you guys again so much! I also need to especially thank Paul and my mom for all their help making my hopes for the party become a reality and for putting up with my perfectionism. I couldn't have done it without y'all!

The cupcakes were a chocolate with white

frosting collaborative effort between

my mom, Paul, and myself. We I wanted the

frosting to look like clouds and it took us

much trial and error to get it just right. We

ended up going with store-bought as a last

resort and it was perfect.

Not sure if anyone cares but just so I can

remember it, we served sausage balls with

mustard, corn dip with blue corn chips,

Southwest pretzels, red bell pepper hummus

and pita chips, veggies, and caprese salad bites

(cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, and buffalo

mozzarella drizzled with balsalmic vinegar).

Cupcake toppers were paper airplanes

made from old atlas pages.

We had a spot for "In-Flight Magazines", which included

SkyMall, Southwest airplane safety instructions,

and a custom Flying magazine we made

My dad had saved this Flying magazine from the month

Wilder was born last year so we photoshopped the cover

to include an article about "Wild Blue Airlines"

Inside were all of Wilder's weekly pictures, pictures of

Wilder with his little buddies, and photos from the year

We asked people to leave notes in the airplane piggy

bank for Wilder that he can read later on. A big

thank you to Southwest for the adorable piggy bank,

as well as the Southwest napkins and pretzels they

so graciously sent to us to use for the party.

For favors I made lemon cookies with lemon icing

shaped like airplanes (recipe here). For the

kids we did goody bags with "Wild Blue Airlines

Flight Crew" name tags on the front filled

with a bouncy ball, a punch balloon, a cookie,

and a pilot rubber ducky (most of the kids were

under two so I had to keep that in mind when

choosing goodies). Forgot to get a picture

of the kids' favors unfortunately.