Jude’s first birthday party will be on Sunday (despite the fact that his actual b-day is on the following Wednesday — too tricky to pull off a party in the middle of the week). I cannot wait. It really is true what they say — the first birthday is more for the parents than anything. But I feel like we really do have something to celebrate, and that’s ok. I’m trying to remember what I was doing at a year ago this time. We were getting ready to have our first baby shower. We had also just come back from a fall break trip to Southern California, and I was super miserable. Unbeknownst to me, my blood pressure had started to rise, and my preeclampsia was starting to kick in. I was sooooo swollen. And I was up every night with terrible chest pain that I assumed was heartburn (wrong!).

Now, a year later, how marvelously different things are! I am just so excited about celebrating Jude’s big day. Both he and us have come so far in the past year, and it is just an awesome thing.

So, we are having a small, family-centric, circus-themed party for Jude. While I didn’t manage to get my invitations printed out (bad!), I did get them emailed. ::blush::  And I’ve been making crafts for the party, too. I really wanted to make a pennant banner, so I bought a bunch of colored craft paper and patterned scrapbooking papers, and I’ve had so much fun making them.

My uber-crafty and fab-kids-party-thrower sister-in-law Chrysi gave out these cute Martha Stewart animal puppets as favors (below) to the babies at a recent party. They were just too cute, and what is a circus without animals? I found the kits at Wal-Mart, and they were super-easy to assemble, and an excellent price. I just love them. And while we won’t be having any clowns, I am giving a nod to them with my party hats (below). I had a lot of fun decorating these plain hats from a party supply store. With some glittered chipboard letters (in a fun, circus-y typeface), pompoms, ribbons, and whatever other trims and stickers I had laying around, they turned out pretty fun.

Jude really liked them and wanted to try them on. Until I actually put one on him. And then he decided it was far more fun for Mommy to wear one instead.

There’s lots more fun in store! I’ll be sure to keep everyone updated on how it turns out!