Savannah’s Watermelon 1st Birthday Party

Yes, it’s been 2 WEEKS AGO, but we did have a party to celebrate Savannah turning 1 year old. It was on Saturday, April 30th (the day after her birthday) at our house. I had a lot of fun planning the party and decorating for it with lots of pink and green :) Britni helped me decorate the smash cake and cupcakes. I cleaned the whole house. Travis grilled burgers and hotdogs (which were really good!), and Mom and Cici helped with the side dishes…

…and it was a complete disaster—at least from the birthday girl’s perspective. She was getting sick with apparently some sort of virus, and we didn’t realize it until after the party when she had a high fever. She was a little fussier than normal on her birthday, but I figured it was just teething. Same for the morning of the party. I even gave her Tylenol before everyone arrived in hopes that it would make her feel better. No such luck.

At least Big Sister enjoyed it! ;)

The theme of the party: “It’s my party, and I’ll cry if I want to”

There’s really not much to report. Savannah didn’t cry the whole time, but she definitely never smiled. She was obviously feeling miserably. She refused to eat any lunch—a sure sign that something was wrong because that girl loves food! We tried to make the best of it though, and enjoyed having everyone over to celebrate. Hopefully no one’s ears were ringing after they left! ;)

Even the cupcakes were a flop: they looked cute, but they got too dry. I think I must have overcooked them by a few minutes.

Who knows whether the smash cake was any good because it never got eaten!

Mom found a couple of watermelon tablecloths at K-Mart, and they went perfectly with the rest of the decorations I’d bought!

Brooklyn, Savannah, and Carter played outside for a few minutes while we were waiting on everyone to arrive. It had rained the night before, so it was too damp to have the party outside (my original plan).

We were glad that Grandpa and Grandma were able to make it! They’ve never been able to come to Brooklyn’s parties because they are always in Florida during the month of February.

Time to eat!

After everyone (except Savannah) ate lunch, we opened gifts. It was the fastest gift opening I’ve ever seen—mostly thanks to my big helper, Brooklyn.

Brooklyn was tearing into gifts faster than I could look at them!

Even Brooklyn got a gift—a new Woody toy from Paw and Rae Rae!

Korah was dressed so festively for the party!

Hahahaha—this was par for the course on that day.

The grand finale of the party was the smash cake, of course! I made this fabric garland, and I thought it turned out pretty cute :)

Unfortunately, it was all for naught ;)

Savannah cried the entire time she was in the high chair and wouldn’t eat even a single bite of cake. We have the video to prove it :/ We left her in the seat for maybe 2 or 3 minutes, and then we gave up. She was obviously over it at that point :)

After the smash cake “fun”, we served the cupcakes to everyone else, and then the party came to an end. It was a good reminder to me that you can’t control everything (as much as I’d like to as a planner/organizer). Sometimes kids just get sick, and you can’t change it. We were hoping to let her eat some of her cake later the next week, but she wasn’t feeling good for several days, and there was just never a good opportunity to do it. So, it went in the trash uneaten. Oh well! *Spoiler alert: The cake smash with Carla this morning went much better! ;)

Even though she didn’t enjoy herself, we were still glad to be able to celebrate her big birthday with our family and friends! Here’s to many more birthdays in the future, sweet Savannah! And maybe I’ll get brave and plan her another party someday ;)