It’s been a few weeks to get to an emotional place to even post about Meredith’s party, which nearly avoided epic disaster, but now I can at least talk about it without bursting into tears!

The week before Meredith’s 1st birthday party, we had a host of family come into town to stay with us. Little did they know they would become my slaves for the week leading up to the party! Even though I had already prepared most of the decor in advance, there was still a lot to do the week of the party. Grandma was on kid and shopping/errand duty the entire week, and was my sounding board/crafter and moral support, in addition to baking cookies, rice krispie treats, and helping with a massive amount of food prep. Grandpa tied ribbon around 80+ napkins, did a massive grocery haul, and was on Bandit and kid duty countless times while I prepared for the party.

Jake sewed dozens of bear ear headbands for the kids to wear, poured honey into 50+ bear-shaped favor honey jars and helped saw, sand and paint some of the signs at the party, in addition to helping me bake, frost and prepare the food the night before. Aunt Sarah flew in a few days before the party and took some adorable pictures of Meredith to be displayed at the party, provided childcare, baked treats, made teddy bear sandwiches, set up/took pictures the day of the party, helped with clean-up, and spearheaded an adorable photo booth using an instant camera.

Uncle Mike and Ali provided comic relief and absolutely saved the day the morning of the party, in addition to helping with set-up, staying for clean-up and taking no less than two trips to Party City to bring in a crazy amount of balloons. Friends Phi, Phi’s uncle, Jodi, Paul and Katie made some delicious Coconut Dream Bars, macarons, sugar cookies, gluten and dairy free lemon bars, and spring rolls, respectively, while friends Sheela, Amy and Sarah were my heroes for helping arrange flowers during the party when I was frantically running around trying to set everything up. Friends Jessica, Mike and Katie were a huge help cleaning up afterward and helped take home the presents in  their car.

At the end of the day, we were so happy to celebrate with everyone who was able to make it, and were so grateful to our awesome family and friends for their help and support. It truly was a team effort to help everything come together! We were also so grateful it didn’t rain (my backup was using the huge gym in our church building, but seeing as the theme was “Teddy Bear Picnic,” I was understandably desperate to have the party outside!), and while it was a little chilly and the clouds threatened rain all day, my gamble to have a February party outdoors paid off.

And now for the near disaster part!

The day before the party was spent getting all the food prep that had to be done last minute completed, as well as picking up food my friends had made and running last minute errands. I was slated to volunteer at the girls’ school that day, and the twins also had a birthday party to go to, so in between all the party prep, I was dashing around town non-stop, barely noticing my gas light was on (foreshadowing!) That night, we ordered pizza and had an assembly line of Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Sarah and Jake washing and cutting fruit and veggies, making 30 bear-shaped peanut butter honey sandwiches, assembling berry cups, pasta salad and fruit skewers, arranging vegetables in the shape of a rainbow and a slew of other party prep tasks. I’m sure my family was definitely regretting arriving early before the party! Everyone was seriously working non-stop for a good 24 hours.

Jake was my hero and stayed up until 1 a.m. with me putting the finishing touches on frosting the bear cookies, baking mini apple pies, frosting my cupcakes, and putting together my signature giant cupcake. I had baked Meredith’s smash giant cupcake day before, but still had to pipe on the rosettes and needed help with the chocolate wrapper, which cracked twice and had to be redone at midnight. Argh! We were zombies melting chocolate and creating a perfectly formed wrapper for the giant cupcake late into the night!

We woke up excited and ready to go on party day and loaded everything in the car so we could meet Uncle Mike and Ali at the park at 7:30 a.m. The minivan was completely loaded down with party decor and food as we took off barreling down the road on the ten minute drive to the park. About halfway there, I started noticing the car was slowing down and a giant  pit in my stomach started to form as I realized I had forgotten to fill up the car with gas the day before! “NOOOO NOOOO NOOOOOOO!” I was screaming as we pulled to the side of the road. I love how the one time I have ever run out of gas had to be this day of all days!

It’s true that in a crisis situation, you really see what people are made of, and I have to say, we were both remarkably calm throughout the entire ordeal. Jake was very gracious considering my totally idiotic oversight, and didn’t once complain or make fun of me. He is always my rock, but even more so in dire situations like these! We called Mike and Ali to leave the park and bring us a gas can, and were relieved when with only 20 minutes lost, our rescuers arrived and filled a gallon of gas in the van. Thinking we were all clear, we sent them back to the park to start unloading, but despite our desperate pleas, the car still wouldn’t start!

At this point, I was really starting to panic. We were on a downhill slope, which meant the little gas that we had put in, wasn’t reaching the fuel injectors. Cue complete mental breakdown on my part. Jake immediately called for a backup tow truck, while we sent Mike and Ali out for more gas. At this point, I was seriously considering either ditching Jake and jogging to the park (which wouldn’t have done much since only the decor that could fit in Mike’s car was there, the rest being in our minivan), or calling our neighbor with a truck to come load all of our stuff and get me down to the park (we decided it was unlikely our neighbor would have been awake that early on a Saturday morning). The waiting was excruciating as we prayed and tried to start the car every two minutes in vain. It was torture not being able to do much else and with me becoming more and more panicked with every second lost and the party start time drawing ever closer. Finally, Mike and Ali arrived with more gas, and after a quick prayer, we turned the ignition and finally heard that blessed sound of the engine starting! I’ve never been so relieved!

We had lost one hour and a half of set-up time, but it might as well have been all day, because I absolutely needed every second! I knew as soon as I arrived behind schedule that I would have to nix some of my original set up projects in order to get all the essentials set up. After Mike and Ali helped unload and Jake and Grandpa helped with the banners and tablecloths, I was on my own, as everyone had to either leave to get themselves ready for the party, pick up balloons and the sandwiches, and pick up Meredith and the twins at home. All by myself, I was frantically pulling teddy bears, flowers and favors out of boxes and throwing them onto the tables, which were in complete disarray. It was windy that morning and simple tasks, such as taping tablecloths onto the tables, took a monumental amount of time.

The week beforehand, I had set up mock-ups of exactly how I wanted each table, complete with sticky notes on each platter detailing what was going where, but all that was thrown out the window in set-up chaos. Aunt Sarah heroically arrived with the food and dashed frantically back and forth from the car with me, in a last-ditch effort to hide containers and empty boxes before guests arrived. Sarah set up the photo booth and table banners, while Great Aunt Linda and Great Uncle David thankfully arrived early to help set out the food and drinks. We were throwing things on tables like crazy!

In the middle of running around, the caterer arrived with some of the food I had ordered, as well as the amazing Jennifer of Plumeria cakes with the too-cute-to-eat teddy bear picnic cake and bear cake pops. I had such a pretty design for the dessert table, complete with desserts in gingham-lined picnic baskets, raised stumps covered in fake moss for displaying the cake pops, platters raised on various heights, and apothecary jars filled with gummy bears and other bear-themed treats, but just didn’t have time to arrange all of it, and was extremely disappointed in how it all came out. My friend, Natalie, of A Pretty Little Party had designed some custom food signs for me that I didn’t have a chance to set out. My table runners, some of the centerpieces, the special playlist I put together, and some of the banners and baskets were other casualties. The end result was far from my vision, but at that point, I was just grateful to actually be there and just wanted to get through the party!

After a frantic morning, it was go-time as people started arriving, despite the fact that not all of the food/decor had been set up. Our special entertainers, Princess Anna and Olaf arrived and I wanted to be out enjoying the party and saying hello to everyone, instead of getting everything arranged perfectly, so in true Frozen fashion, I just had to let it go. Thankfully, after hearing about my stressful morning, friends Sheela, Amy and Sarah got to work straight away cutting and arranging the dozens of bouquets of flowers I hadn’t had time to put in the mason jars. Now that I know they have some serious flower arranging skills, they are hired for the next party! I was so grateful that at least the flowers got to be displayed in the mason jars I had put together months before.

All in all, no one on the outside would ever notice, but, at the risk of sounding completely spoiled/neurotic, all the decor I had made and designed months in advance turned out no where near how I had planned; hence, my disappointment! I truly enjoy coming up with themes, designing, crafting, baking and creating the girls’ parties, so to not have it meet my expectations was hard to get over. It was just one of those situations in which I had high hopes and was let down by my own massive mistake!

Adding to my dismay was the fact that I have always wanted to do a Teddy Bear Picnic theme and had a very specific vision for how it would all come together. It just didn’t happen, but the good news was that Meredith loved it, we got to hang out with our special family and friends, and everyone seemed to have a good time. Plus, we can be grateful we actually made it to the party!

Enough whining for one day. Part one of party pictures: Olaf and Princess Anna came to play and got the party going!

Meredith wasn’t sure how she felt about a large snowman at her birthday (I couldn’t find a bear to come). THIS DOES NOT GO WITH THE TEDDY BEAR THEME, MOM.

As per the usual, the twins cried and were scared meeting the characters, even though they were talking about how excited they were to meet them for months.

At least some of the other kids were friendly with Olaf and Anna.

Musical squares.

Awesome Amy and Sheela saving the day with their flower arranging skills.

Sarah’s photo booth turned out to be a hit with the kids.

I asked the kids beforehand to bring a teddy bear or their favorite stuffed animal to the party to play some teddy bear themed games. The kids had a blast with the teddy bear parachute game.

“How’s being one going for you, Maple?”

The birthday girl!

Our beary special family sporting our papa bear, mama bear, sister bear and birthday bear shirts!

The twins and Noah with their balloon creations.

Give me that teddy!         

Thanks for saving the party, Uncle Mike and Ali! We’d still be stuck on the side of the road without you!

Lead photographer Aunt Sarah and crew.

Crowning the princesses.

Loving Kim’s teddy bear leggings and Nate’s Paddington outfit!

Olaf was awesome with the kids and wasted no time leaping onto the play structure with them.

Leighton and Ashley were happy to play pirate with Olaf.

Jodi and the beary cute Allie.

It was interesting to see which kids wanted to participate in the games since not all of them were comfortable hanging out with the characters.

The twins were completely unsupervised most of the party and were off sneaking treats from the dessert table during most of the games.

Parade around the park to the “Teddy Bear Picnic” song.  

Look at the parade guys!

How come I’m not playing the games at my own party?

Meredith either stayed atop her perch on Daddy’s shoulders or was wheeled around on her trike most of the party and reminded me of a queen, observing all the festivities from the comfort of her throne!

I was so grateful to Sheela’s daughter, Lily, for being our videographer and for the cute music videos! I guess I’m way behind on the times, because I have no idea what this music video app is!

I love the “Let It Go” in German Lily chose for this video!

More parachute fun!

Meredith loved the musical squares!

To be continued…