Brody's 1st Birthday Lumberjack Shindig

Since it's Flashback Friday and Brody-man is about to turn the big 0-2 this February, I decided to reminisce on Brody's first birthday and share some photos.

Holy shizz yall, I can't believe he's about to be 2! Next thing I know, it will be his first day of kindergarten and then college. HA! I feel like he'll be hollering that he hates me while slamming his bedroom door next week. And, I'll get that "Mom-you're-embarrassing-me" look and I'll be like "do you remember how amaze balls your first birthday was!? Um, yeah. I DID THAT. OK, me and some help from your grandparents, but you should re-think your attitude bud."

So before he's 14 and rolling his eyes at me, let me enjoy remembering his first birthday for my sweet baby boy...

I'd been looking for some great ideas for party themes six months prior to Brody's birthday. If you don't know me or my family (meaning my mom and sister), then we are the type of gals who see something we like and then we figure out a way to imitate and make it our own. We are pretty creative (or at least they are!), and when we don't just 'throw' something together. I mean we have, but we work our butts off the nights, days and weeks prior.

Parties, weddings, kids costumes, (ok with the exception of this year for B's halloween costume--he was John Wayne and it was last minute; like literally day of...), baby and wedding showers--you name it, we've done it!

I had a few runner-ups when it came to themes, but I decided to go with something I'd never seen or
known anyone to do--LUMBERJACK!

I got my inspiration from The Cake Blog, who featured a lumberjack party. Brody loves being outside, so I figured it suited him well!

Once my decision for the party was in full force, my M-I-L and F-I-L had some left over tree trunks they cut up and lacquered for me to use as cake stands and table decor. We bought some little chalkboard signs at First Monday, plaid fabric and we were off prepping for a Lumberjack party our little man would have a blast at.

Luckily, my mom and dad's house is lodge-like and woodsy, so she had plenty of decor lying around the house that we could use.

CAKE Catastrophe

The night before the party, I went to pick up the cake and came back crying. I ordered it from Brookshire's and had shown them a photo of this gorgeous cake with a sky blue top with clouds and the bottom was green with spray-painted mountains. I told them not to worry about the decor on the cake image (which was camping-themed), we'd handle that, but I just needed the backdrop.

I SPECIFICALLY SAID, if they couldn't do that then just get it a solid color.

Well, I went to pick it up and it was a mess. It looked absolutely awful. Brody could have made it prettier. No offense, Bro! It was NOTHING like I wanted. The people at Brookshire's could tell I was upset and gave me a discount, but I needed a cake.

I took it home and my mom started working on it and blended it all so it was solid green. I was literally a basket case the whole time.

She added some decor we had and it turned out great! Thanks, Mom!

The party was as off-the-chain as a one year old's party can be. People sported their flannel, he kids had a blast in the bounce house and surprisingly everyone made their own ax at the ax-making station. All in all, it was a pretty epic first birthday party complete without a birthday boy meltdown! Not sure how that happened, but hey I was thankful.

At the end of the night, Brody hadn't had a nap all day and started to fall asleep sitting up in Da da's lap. Yup, he had fun.