Summer 2012 Week 1 {Birthday Week} – Reflection

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We had a great birthday week.  We enjoy celebrating (when I turned 40 I made a whole month of it).  We were intentional throughout the week and there are some things we did not blog about.

Things We Did Not Blog About

  1. We gave Colton a sandbox for his birthday.  Andrew built it and Colton adores it and  is asking all the time to play in it.
  2. We both went into Cole’s room his birthday morning carrying 3 balloons and singing.  It was a celebration to start the day (no pics).
  3. We went to two other wonderful birthday parties leading up to Cole’s birthday so he was prepped (3a was cousin Oliver’s “Animal Tracking Party” and 3b was Christopher’s “Lightening McQueen Party).
  4. We actually had two birthday parties for Cole on his birthday: 1 for toddlers and the other for friends and family.  We prepared for four, we thought the first was going to be inside, then it was nice out.  We prepared the second one for outside and then it poured.  The first party was all about Colton and his friends, the second was more laid back and a time to appreciate the adults that have supported our little guy (4a the guests made a page in a smash book for Cole about where they thought he should visit, 4b he got lots of wonderful presents from wonderful people).
  5. We had a surprise visitor between the two parties!  The Music Man saw balloons at our house and came to play Cole a happy birthday song.  Cole is smitten with the guitar, and this master of it. It was amazing – a big thanks to Brian Doser!
  6. At the 5:00 pm start of party # 2 a torrential downpour let loose, soaking our guests followed by the electricity going out.  Everyone was amazingly flexible, we are so grateful.
  7. We took out 5 books from the library on planes.  I thought I might blog about them, none of them were very good.  We have books at home about airplanes that we like better.

Things We Wish We Had Thought of . . . 

After most things Andrew and I debrief, reflect on what we would change and what we did well.  Thought I would share that here, and that way it is writing for us to refer back to . . . .

  1. I wish that we had budgeted.  Andrew and I have been budgeting monthly, we pay all of our bills before the first of the month.  But we did not specifically have a budget for Cole’s birthday.  My old mindset feels if I put a budget on things, that I will feel restricted.  But what I recognized this time is that I just felt terribly whenever I spent money.  There is a joy in having a budget, and spending that money that was set aside already for just that.
  2. I wish we had a list of pictures that we wanted to take and made sure that that happened.  I am finding that this is something that I want to get into the habit of doing.  The truth is that my list would not be very long and it would get done if I were more intentional.  The two pictures that I wish we had are the three of us the day of the party and one of the cupcakes.  And with three years of birthday parites, this has been an issue every year.  Thank goodness for friends who said that we should pose together year one . . . but since then we have not been intentional and the dessert does not get it’s due – the past parties we got pictures of the cake and cupcakes in the box, but never displayed.  In addition, I do wish we were more intentional about getting pictures of every person at the party.  The photo booth was great, but more candids would be on my list too.
  3. Lastly, we skipped a step we usually do when we host . . . listing out the food we are serving.  It has been helpful in the past, and poor Andrew was setting out all the food while I was with our guests (each adult guest had put a page in a book for Cole about where they think he should travel to).  And the pasta salad nor the potato salad made it to the table (though we had two easy go-tos for the rest of the week).

Things We are Glad We Did . . . 

  1. We did a little each day leading up to the party, that meant we put up clouds and Cole was thrilled, we hung paper airplanes and he enjoyed those each morning.  Decorating a bit leading up to the party meant less to do right before and it meant that we felt festive throughout the week.
  2. We set aside a specific place for things we were going to use for the party.  I actually used some plastic drawers and labeled them with what was in them.  It took very little time and it meant that leading up to the day of the party I could grab a drawer, work on a project, and then put it away.  The day before the project I cleared all the drawers and we were ready to go.
  3. We asked for help.  I have learned that when I have more than half a dozen people over, I feel as if I am taking care of details instead of actually being present with our guests.  So when my friend Lisa offered to help, I accepted.  And inspired, I also asked on of my students for help, Olivia.  They were amazing, taking care of the details, putting together lunch trays, wrangling toddlers.  I did get to talk with our guests, and be with our little guy, and it was wonderful.

So our first week of summer is complete . . . We are well on our way to 10 intentional weeks of summer.

During Birthday Week We . . . 

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