Party plans

Ryan will be a year in 6 days. I am having such a hard time wrapping my head around that and partly it's because I haven't given it much thought. Cue the "second child guilt".

We are having a small birthday party for him this weekend and I have barely prepared for it at all.

For Nathan's first birthday, I spent weeks making an elaborate poster with photos from each month of his life. I don't even know if we took photos of Ryan each month, but Will and I plan on sorting through what we have tonight and trying to come up with a few good ones!

For Nathan's first birthday, I planned a theme and ordered party supplies weeks in advance.
I may have been running around yesterday trying to find some last minute plates and napkins for Ryan this weekend and I definitely just placed a rush order on a birthday party website. (Fingers crossed my order ships in time.)

For Nathan's first birthday, I made his cake myself, a pretty good lion if I say so myself. For Ryan, that internet order I mentioned includes an edible decal that I will be slapping onto a sheet cake from the grocery store.

For Nathan's first birthday, I wrote down how much his first year meant to me so I would never forget what I was feeling.  For Ryan, I keep having moments of "Holy crap, I forgot Ryan's going to be 1 this weekend!"

I tell myself that with Nathan, he was my only child, I was home full-time and Will was home every night so I had free time to plan and prepare. This time around, I have two kids, I'm working full-time and Will travels so any spare time I have usually involves my butt, the couch and bad reality TV.

I know at the end of the day, it's not the party that matters. And I know that without question, I am just as excited for Ryan's first birthday as I was for Nathan's. It's just going to be a little more low key than it was the first time around. That can even be my theme, "Less is More."  And that's OK. At least that's what I'll keep telling myself all week while I scramble to pull this party together!