He’s One. Emmett turned One. Hold the phone.
I simultaneously feel astounded that we’re already here, shocked that we made it here in one piece, and immensely excited at what a cool little man our baby growing into. There are so many more (probably horribly cliché) emotional things I could say about this milestone, but let’s leave it at this – we feel really, really honoured to be raising this little guy, and we are darn lucky to have amazing family and friends who helped us get through this crazy year. So naturally we threw a party with those folks to celebrate and say thanks!
And while it’s a bit different than our typical posts, we wanted to share the party with you as well. Because we love how much you love Em, and we’re sharing a few things we learned in the planning process that might be helpful for ya’ll!
I was pretty adamant that while I wanted the day to be special for all of us, I didn’t want to spend a fortune. And there were a few key things we did to keep our spending in check:
- Borrow party décor where possible, instead of buying – luckily we have some family members with a penchant for all things plaid and rustic, so we lucked out in this area. But seriously, this saved us A LOT.
- Let the food work double duty – a large chunk of your spending goes into feeding your guests (as it should… they’ve helped you keep your baby alive for a year!), so do your best to tie your food elements into the theme to enhance the impact! We arranged our fruit and veggie trays into owl shapes, made our deli meats look like a campfire (sort of?), and added punny woodland names to each of our dishes (I spent waaaaaay to much time coming up with ‘Sumac and Cheese’).
- Be choosey with your cake! Cakes can be crazy expensive, CRAZY expensive. So, we sought out a local baker, with a small business baking from her home, and saved a bundle – and it was delish!
We also wanted to select a few sweet gifts for our little guy that would tie into the theme of the day, and create some sweet memories (helloooooo small shops!). We ended up giving Em some beautiful wooden toys from TreeClub Kids, a ridiculously adorable raccoon poncho from Ponchies (more to come on both of these shops and items soon, we just love them so) and a heart-melting blanket from Dotboxed that reads “This is Love”… because it is.
The blanket is the sweetest cotton muslin swaddle, but it’s big enough to wrap around Em’s big ol’ toddler body… and he loves it! And because our friends at Dotboxed are the sweetest, they’ve set up a coupon for you guys to save 20% in their shop (HERE) on a sweet little blanket for your own little this Holiday season! Just enter EMMETT1 when you check out to save!
Now excuse us while we unwind, and soak in every moment of this next year… because This Is Love.
Xo
Note: After searching for some awesome Canadian-made toys for our boy, we were provided the gift items mentioned above to test out for Emmett. As always though, all opinions are our own, and these sweet gifts really are that great! The post also contains affiliate links, and we so appreciate your support!
