Cora's First Birthday Party

I had a lot of fun dreaming up what Cora's first birthday party would look like. I scoured Pinterest during naps and when I was avoiding grad school assignments, and I felt so intimidated by all of those creative-types out there. I'm so not crafty. I mean, I like thinking up crafts, but figuring out how to execute them? Not exactly my forte. And let's be honest, Cora will absolutely not remember her first birthday, so while the party was for her, it represented way more than that.

To us, Cora's first birthday party was about us loving our first year as parents and as we fumbled our way through the dark, friends and family came out of the woodwork to support and love us as we figured out how to love our daughter best, how to balance our new lives as parents, and how to reach out for support when you'd rather not ask for help.

Cora's party was so much more than celebrating her first year of life and our first year as parents; it was about celebrating the community that came together to love on us as a new family. We are forever thankful for the encouragement, love, walks, laughs, and babysitting that our friends and family have given to us. It's hard to explain the feeling of pure thankfulness and joy that pulses through my heart when I see people loving on our daughter so extravagantly.

We have been so blessed and we are so thankful.

And how this party came together is a true testament to how much our family loves us. I had a killer last couple of weeks with school coming to an end, and our family swooped in and created beauty from the ashes of my half-finished, over-achieving, totally particular, party plans. It was miraculous that it all came together, and I have to say, I was so incredibly impressed.


The night before...

Pretty sure they fluffed pom-poms for two hours, sorry!

I'm so mean! Look how tired they are!

The morning of...

The party guests arrive!

She loves that push toy.

 And then the cake.

We're so thankful for everyone who came to help us celebrate the most amazing year of our lives!

Major thanks to John Yoo and Brian Gregson for the amazingly wonderful party pictures. Such a wonderful gift to be able to simply enjoy being there and not worry about the details being captured.