First Birthday: Morning of & Gift Opening

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First Birthday: Morning Of & Gift Opening

I am starting a series of posts about Alexis’ First Birthday celebration.

I was going back and forth between doing a party and celebrating small with just family and then finally things started falling in place for a party, so I decided to go for it.
We both felt like the first year needs to be celebrated. It was a trying and a joyful year for us an one of the most important years for Alexis and that needed to be acknowledged.

Slowly I came up with a theme I wanted to have: French. I didn’t have a clear idea on whether it was going to be Paris or Poodle (ok, definitely not poodle) or countryside or shabby chic. It was kind of a mix of everything…but that’s for a later post.

The morning of January 31st, we woke up bright and early with Alexis while it was still sort of dark. Her grandma USA was visiting and my mom is staying with us, so they promptly came out to congratulate their adorable granddaughter and watch her open presents. For the gift opening, she wore her new dress, a birthday gift from Nosilla Organics and a matching diaper ( so cool that we had a teal BG to go with it)

We specifically indicated on the birthday invitations “no gifts please” for many reasons. We have more than enough toys, I didn’t want our guests to have to worry about gifts and just come enjoy the party, I find the whole opening gifts in front of people awkward.

So  we designated the morning of her birthday for gift opening from family and a few friends who were sweet enough to order from Lexi’s Amazon Wishlist that I keep for tracking purposes unbeknownst to us.

First Birthday: Morning Of & Gift Opening

Her first gift was a doll stroller I had ordered her from Amazon. She absolutely LOVED it! I had not expected a reaction like that, since I figured she was too young for a doll stroller. She refused to go open other gifts. I handed her a new teddy bear  and showed her how to sit him in the stroller. My girl didn’t skip a beat before she started pushing the stroller along. {note: she still absolutely adores her stroller and uses it daily more than any other toy. I would recommend it to any 1 year old)

First Birthday: Morning Of & Gift Opening

We spent good 20 minutes laughing at her and with her and watching her enjoy the gift.

First Birthday: Morning Of & Gift Opening

Then came many more gifts: more of her favorite flashcards, pop-up books, Melissa and Doug sound puzzles I was very excited to have bought her ( which I have decided I don’t want to continue using due to my own safety concerns based on some healthystuff.org ratings)

First Birthday: Morning Of & Gift Opening First Birthday: Morning Of & Gift Opening

Then it was time to play while mommy, daddy an grandpas frantically try to finish all the decorations before the guests arrive at 1pm.

The  whole series

 

I am hoping to be as detailed as possible about the whole planning, decorating and hosting part, because it was a completely new experience to me when it comes to kids’ birthday parties. I’d never gone to that extent to plan a party, so this was a fun learning experience I am looking to share with you.

First Birthday: Morning Of & Gift Opening

18 COMMENTS

  1. I love reading all of the updates, and seeing all the photos! Lexi will surely enjoy looking back on these as she gets older! Thanks so much for sharing!

  2. I love her dress! I myself would wear one like this, to be honest :))

    Can’t wait for your party decor post!! I have 1st birthday coming up in May and I so-so hope to learn something from your experience, Elena. Knowing you (from your blog) you had everything just perfect :)))

  3. I love seeing your updates! I think Lexi will love being able to look back at such small details of her childhood. I also started a blog for my pregnancy and it has since turned into sort of a scrapbook for my daughter and family. Anyway, Lexi is so cute and, Oh that hair!

  4. Just curious, but why do you refer to your mother-in-law as grand-ma USA? Is your mother referred to as ‘grand-ma’? Couldn’t your mother-in-law by grammy, mi-mi or something?

  5. Aww, she obviously loves the stroller. This would be a perfect present for my niece. I can’t find much in the way of details on the Amazon page though….do you know about materials and where it is made?

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