First birthdays seem to come with some extra weight if you are planning a 1st birthday party. They aren’t old enough to choose their own theme, and their interests aren’t always very evident yet. You only get 1-2 years as a parent for each child to make the theme the way you want it, come three years and it’s all clear opinions for the most part after then haha! I also had tried not to make a big deal of the 1st and 2nd birthdays too much, but with a third son and the older ones excited about birthday parties and Wesley didn’t need to be left out…well, we were having a fully decorated party! I had so many ideas…Huckleberry Finn, Little Boy Blue, Wind in the Willows…I didn’t know what to choose. In fact, I was getting a little flustered trying to plan the theme. Every time I thought I knew my direction, I’d hit a wall and it was impossible for me to plan.
So one night, I went to take a shower and I usually turn on the audible Scripture reading since it’s hard for me to find undistracted time to read the Bible. I couldn’t get focused though that night. Party stuff kept invading my thoughts. I finally pushed it out completely to listen and pray for several minutes and wasn’t thinking about the party anymore. Then I hear Holy Spirit, “Did you ask Me what your son’s birthday party should be?” I was taken aback and said, “Well no, I thought it didn’t matter that much. But, since You asked, what do YOU want it to be?”
“What does his name mean?” The Lord asked.
I was slightly disappointed cause I knew where this was going now. “A bear from the west meadow seeking after righteousness.” (I said without the slightest twinge of excitement by the way.) “But Lord, I don’t want to do a bear theme! I know friends who have done it recently already! And (getting all pouty and selfish now), the first birthday I get to choose any theme I want! And I still don’t get to pick it?”
“The choice is still yours. But I chose his name and there is great significance that you will know one day. I want this birthday to reinforce his name and speak over him how I designed him. But you still have the choice.”
“Oh Lord, You know that my greatest desire is to always do what You desire. So I will find great joy and delight in the bear theme once I get started.”
I sat down to plan afterwards and drew a little bear for his invitation. From that moment on, everything flowed and I fell in love with the bear drawing and everything else! Wesley loves outdoors and we wanted to turn it into a camping trip, so it all came together perfectly because it was God’s plan…not mine!
The food were in boxes with sandwiches and individual chips, fruit cups, etc I was able to preassemble and, since it was just family, I customized each box and we labeled them. On the food table, we made a trail mix bar for us to snack on throughout the day with little bags I made stickers with the bear drawing on them to keep and mix your trail mix. And of course the desserts of cookies by Sweet Anomaly’s, vanilla cupcakes with teddy grahams, and spice cakes for the birthday cake. I made the wooden bear cut outs and the twig #1 for the cake toppers and then just decorated the bases with rock candy, mint and rosemary. I painted the watercolor artwork as well, and my brother had given me a few years back some wooden mountain decor he had made by hand, so those fit perfectly. I found some cheap brown fur fabric as part of the table runners. My favorite was making the favors though! I hand cut and carved the wooden bears, made a “field notes” booklet for the kids, twig colored pencils, a stuffed bear and bear ears all in a hand-painted bag. Those field notes were the biggest hit with all the cousins! I had a scavenger hunt for what to find in nature, some animal track guides, puzzles, coloring pages of bears and more. You could see them running all around the campsite with those booklets making notes and super excited about what they were finding and learning. So much so that my 4 year old (at the time) wanted to make sure we had something like it for his next birthday. All in all, it was a very special party for our beary special little boy and I’m soooo glad the Lord told me what direction to go in that night! It has made it to a top favorite of my party portfolio!
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