Batter Up! ~ Our Little Slugger's First Birthday Party

{We won't talk about how behind I am with posts! We'll just get right to this one! Getting caught up is definitely on my to-do list!}

Yesterday we celebrated our sweet boy at his very first birthday party!

I choose a vintage baseball theme several months ago and had SO much fun with it! I designed the invitation using a digital paper from etsy as the background. I pulled the color scheme from it as well.

I was thrilled to find his baseball pants on ebay back when he was only like five months old and bought his raglan on Amazon. His hat came from Cracker Barrel and his little Nikes were also an Ebay purchase.

I took his baseball portraits back at the beginning of July with the help of Pop Pop, Mimi, Auntie and Nonny for smiles sake!

There are several more to share so I'll put them in their own post sometime soon! 

Initially, we were going to have the party here at home, but decided about two weeks ago to move it to the park just a few streets over! Daddy thought it would be fun to have the ball field and playground for the kids to play on. So I reserved Francisco Park and started stalking the weather forecast. For most of the week, Saturday looked like rain and lots of it. Like a 60 percent chance of rain all day long! We started praying that it would hold off and things would work out in favor of our afternoon celebration. 

And hold off they did! The Lord gave us an absolutely gorgeous day for the outdoor festivities!

This set up greeted guests as they arrived at the park. 

The chalkboard was reused from our wedding reception as it has been for the last several parties we've hosted! I bought the baseballs from a little league coach's ad on Craigslist for a dollar a ball and the ONE letters are from Joann's. I just painted them to match the theme.

I ordered the little bat from Etsy and had everyone sign it as a keepsake for Liam to have for years to come. It turned out so cute, but I forgot to take a picture of it after everyone signed it!

This highchair got it's third use (we used it for Londyn Grace's first and second birthday parties, too!) and it's third layer of paint for Liam's party! It's been pink, yellow and now almond! Mimi made the highchair banner and Mom Mom made his baseball bib and a skirt for Londyn Grace to match. The monogrammed wooden bat and ball came from unfinishedwood.com.

We served classic baseball snacks like popcorn, sunflower seeds, double bubble and cracker jacks to compliment the menu of hot dogs, cole slaw and potato salad.

We chose cupcakes instead of a big cake and then bought a small smash cake for Bubby to dig into.

The sugar bats, balls and gloves came from Amazon. 

The cracker jacks made the perfect party favor with these cute little tags! I totally forgot to take a picture of the finished product so here's a snap from Instagram!

The centerpieces were a hit and guests enjoyed snacking on peanuts during the party, but I never thought about how peanuts and squirrels would mesh! Let's just say they were very happy we planned to have the party in the park and helped themselves to a snack, too! Each bucket also held a monthly chalkboard photo!

I was anxious about the timing of the party and wanted to make sure Liam took a good nap beforehand. Thankfully he slept about two hours and was pretty happy when he woke up! Daddy got him dressed in his uniform and we discovered that his shoes were a little small! Apparently, his feet have grown a bit since we took the portraits a month ago! We were able to squeeze them into the sneakers only to find out he was very uncomfortable so we ended up ditching the shoes when he was very upset at the beginning of the party. After that he was ready to go!

We grabbed a few family shots before the kids got their outfits messy and I'm so glad we did!

Londyn Grace was so excited about Brother's party! She is so sweet with him!

And of course she had to be silly, too!

After we ate, it was time to sing Happy Birthday to our precious boy! 

He just watched intently as we all sang to him. Sister had been talking about helping him blow out his candle for weeks!

And then got right to devouring his cake!

any guesses as to needed to help him eat it, too?! :)

He was sweet enough to share with Daddy and Mama!

I just love the joy on his little face!

He would've sat their eating the icing for hours if we allowed him to, but we had presents to open!

After cleaning up and stripping him down to his onesie, it was time for gifts!

We were so blessed by all the love our family and friends showed our baby boy!

It was so good to have our parents, grandparents and my sister and brother in law here from Maryland and Pennsylvania.

We couldn't have done it without their help. Between setting up tables, running out a million times for all the things I forgot and just being there to help with the babies, they went above and beyond!

Family time is always short, but so so sweet when the miles that separate us are many.

with Mimi & Pop Pop (my parents)

with Grandpap & Grammy (Daniel's parents)

with Opa & Oma (Daniel's grandparents)

with Mom Mom (my grandmother)

Unfortunately, Auntie and Nonny were so busy helping I never got a picture of them with the birthday boy on my camera, but thankfully we have these phone pictures! 

with Auntie, Nonny & Baby K 

Everyone pitched in to get things cleaned up and I grabbed a few more shots of our birthday boy.

And after a few minutes of play on Mom Mom's lap, he was partied out!

It was a lovely afternoon spent with our favorite people celebrating our favorite boy!

He is such a precious gift to our family!

It was a happy party day for our little Liam babe!