The First Birthday Party!

My wife wasn’t kidding when she said to me late Sunday night, after the big party “I think you got a little carried away”. Yeah! I’ve been planning this for months now, and it wasn’t easy.
In my attempt to not have a “normal’ 1st birthday party, I got carried away with the "Hawaiian Luau" theme, booked our local Lake Clubhouse, invited over 100 people, had a local Hawaiian place cater, spent probably a small fortune recruiting our very talented “event decorator” friend Rosie for flowers and decorations, and then hired an “surprise” Elvis Impersonator to sing Happy Birthday to my daughter and then pelt out Blue Hawaii songs while serving up cake.

It all didn’t happen very smoothly, of course. Stalling with games while Elvis was about an hour and a half late (I don’t know, maybe a drinker like the real Elvis – He is an impersonator…) doing something else, maybe buying a Cadillac perhaps.
Thankfully, in the end it all came together - the kids and their parents had an equal amount of fun. I can’t even count the times we’ve been to kid’s parties and I know I’m not having much fun - I wanted to change that when my time came around.

“Why all the trouble for a first birthday party for something she won’t remember” – was the questions I got asked allot. Well, first of all, I’ll make sure she remembers it from me talking about so much. It’ll practically seem like she was there! (which she was, of course). Second, I had a deep conversation with my daughter (in babble, with occasional clear words of “Up” and “Dada” thrown in) and she told me she wanted either a flying butterfly Pony with sparkles or an Elvis impersonator at her first birthday. Or at least that’s what I heard.
Thirdly, the look my daughter kept giving Elvis was something I’ll always remember for the rest of my life – She didn’t really know what this guy was doing in a white gold-studded jumpsuit. It’s moments like that, that make it all worth it.

I came into work today with people asking me how in the world will I top this party next year. Truthfully, there probably won’t be anything like this one again until she gets married (hopefully in 25 years or more….). The next set of parties will be much smaller (few of her friends with some close family/friends), with whatever she chooses, and themed to whatever she’s into (except Dora, The Doodlebops, Jimmy “Ugly” Neutron, The Beatles, Brittany Spice-2010?)…But the first birthday, well the parent gets the honor of figuring out what that is.









Afterwards Elvis told me that this was the "first" kids birthday party he's ever worked. Then he left the building. On a butterfly Pony.