Wyatt's Party

On the bad blogger train I've been riding, I realized when I read Stephanie's post about Vayden's first birthday, that I have yet to finish posting about Wyatt's birthday! I feel like life is flying by and I wish I could find a way to put on the brakes for a while so I can get all caught up...

I was worried when I woke up to a gloomy and foreboding sky. Not exactly what you want to wake up to when your soul already feels that way on the inside. Luckily, with all the preparations I still had to make I didn't have time to sit around and feel sorry for myself.

I spent the week before Wyatt's party drowning in decorations I was making. I couldn't find any party decorations that had elephants or stars that I liked so I decided I would just make my own.

So I made cupcake holders...

And elephant garland...

And Elephant party blowers...

And elephant and star cookies...

And this cute little guy (made out of gum paste) to top Wyatt's cupcake...

And these to go in the rest of the cupcakes...

And napkin rings...

The kids even helped out and made Wyatt some decorations for his party.

Can I just add that Wyatt's first birthday was very confusing for Ansley and Eli... More so for Ansley. She thought we were going to have Wyatt's birthday and that Wyatt would be there and get to come home with us finally. i kept having to explain to her that Wyatt had to stay in heaven, but that he could see us having the party for him from heaven and that he would get to play with all the balloons we were going to send him. It wasn't fun to have to keep letting her down when she got excited to see baby Wyatt...

On a happier note.

I was very happy overall with the decorations. It felt more special and intimate to me because I felt like I was able to put my heart into each aspect of Wyatt's party. And I brought all of Wyatt's elephants and figurines I've collected over the last year, as well as some of my favorite pictures of him to decorate the tables.

Wyatt's actual party was great. We had a much better turn out than I expected. And I'm guessing it's probably just because I looked pretty pathetic being that pregnant and on crutches, but everyone was more than willing to help me out! We had people grilling, filling up balloons, and helping with decorations!

We didn't do much at Wyatt's party besides fellowship and eat. I was just happy that people actually came! Plus, we'd sand Wyatt happy birthday and blew out a candle for him earlier as a family so we didn't feel like it needed to be done again at the party.

One thing my heart was aching for was to be able to see Wyatt dig into his first birthday cake. I wanted a picture of that so badly! Another first I was being robbed of... But you know what? I still got a picture of my other little guy digging into his cupcake... and then the other cupcake he "snuck" off the cupcake stand... and the other cupcake he "borrowed" from some poor unsuspecting party guest who left their plate unguarded!

My favorite part of the party was the balloon release. Wouldn't you know that the sky was gorgeous when it was time to send Wyatt his balloons. Here I was fretting all day about not being able to release balloons because the sky was sure to fall out... and the sky couldn't have been more beautiful.

Before we released the balloons, Joseph and I both took a second to say a few words and thank everyone for coming. I'm not one for speeches and I was already choked up, so Joseph explained the significance of sending balloons to Wyatt in heaven and how we've been doing that for him together since he passed away.

With that being said, we all had a moment of silence before we filled the sky with balloons for Wyatt. I watched them float away until they disappeared behind the tree line. I tried to hide the tears that had filled my eyes. It wasn't that I was crying because I was sad (although, I was sad), I was crying because I was touched that so many people came to be a part of something that was so special to me.

I chose to have a big first birthday for Wyatt for selfish reasons really. I felt like I had been robbed of all the firsts I wanted so badly to share with Wyatt. Firsts that I couldn't have had any control over missing. Firsts like Wyatt's first word, first time crawling, first step, first smile. This was a first I had control over. This was the first first that didn't have to pass by forgotten. This was a first I had the opportunity to make a big deal about... I refused to give up my chance to celebrate a first for Wyatt and I'm so happy I finally have a first to remember for him!

I hope you enjoyed hearing about Wyatt's party. Again, sorry it took so long to post about it. I promise I'm going to get better about posting one of these days!