To Theme or Not to Theme…

As I have mentioned, we had a big day in our home this past weekend. We celebrated our little one’s first birthday! If you have children or know anyone who does, which is all of you, you know how much planning typically goes into this monumental day! Invitations are chosen, or designed and made, guest list assembled, favors creatively compiled, food determined or ordered, shopping done, games planned, house cleaned, yard trimmed…have I missed anything? Oh, yes, what will your THEME be? That is the question of the day. Each person who learns of this upcoming celebration will ask “what is your theme?”.

I am humbled to admit that this simple question became a point of stress for me. I didn’t know what our theme would be. My pride stopped me from admitting this without explanation. I just couldn’t think of a theme. I am generally pretty creative, but not this time. So, we bought some adorable invitations with Lions on them and decided that lions could be a theme, right? They looked just like this cake:

So, our theme was lions, right? Sure…that is what it would be. I would say it, but was not committed to it. I didn’t know what the games would be (pin the tale on the lion didn’t work…) or what we would give as favors (stuffed lions? hats and training tools?). What would we serve for food? What do lions eat that people would EVER want to consume? My analytic mind was going crazy! 🙂

It seems that a theme would have helped people in my situation, but, no…not me. It was only adding anxiety. So sad…I should know better at my age. Then, one enlightening day, about a week before our little one’s party, I began thinking, “I don’t have to stick to a theme, do I?” Do I need to have favors and games for a one year old? What about a bounce house? Can he even bounce? Isn’t our trampoline good even if it doesn’t look like a lion? 🙂 I pondered this for several days and then, I said it out loud and it felt good! The stress seemed to leave. “I don’t think I will have a theme.” The response was better than I thought. So, I said it a few more times. “I don’t think we will have a theme.” I think the theme will be “little J”. That seems like a good theme, considering it is HIS birthday, and not a lions big day. 🙂

Well, you can see where this story is going. Through my struggles, I am so grateful to say, that I learned that the MOST important part of the party isn’t the theme. First, our focus must be God’s goodness to us in giving us this little blessing. And, then we are of course celebrating the life of our precious little one. My focus had been regained. And, by the way, little J told me he didn’t care if there were lions or not. He said he would rather have a well rested and happy mommy. Well, he would have if he could talk. 🙂

So, here are our decorations:

A few lions did sneak in. 🙂

And, all of the food was little…we had mini sliders, corn dogs and hot dogs. Mini root beer floats and mini cups of potato salad and applesauce also made the menu.

What wasn’t mini, was the love that was poured out on our little boy. Our family showed up in full force and showered him with affection, fun, and lots of wonderful gifts. I am still smiling as I think of how blessed we are to be in such a family! We thank God for every day we have with our little guy, and I am not “lion”. 🙂

Blessings!