Malcolm’s First Birthday Party

As previously gushed/sobbed about, our Malcolm just turned one!

Warren, Ella, and I had a lovely low-key day celebrating him in Los Angeles before flying to Lagrange for his big birthday baby pool party.

I started thinking about Malcolm’s first birthday almost as soon as he hit six months old and while a lot of it was kind of just for me, celebrating one year of wonder, it ended up being so amazing to have so many people who love Malcolm all together to celebrate him.

I swear, that little mush knew it was his day! After spending the day before getting overwhelmed at basically everything, he had a blast the day of his party. He really could tell that all the people around him loved him and well, my poor heart could barely take it.

When I told Warren (gleefully!) that more people had texted me to wish Malcolm a happy birthday than had ever texted me on mine, he said, “Yes, but it’s because they love you.” To say that we all felt overwhelmed with love wouldn’t do the magic justice.  It was a perfect day for a perfect baby.

And now, what you’ve all been waiting for: so, so, so many pictures!

Malcolm’s party was a baby pool party, essentially a backyard full of different kiddie pools and our “theme” was rainbow colors (this is a theme, I swear).

We had a ball pit, two baby pools filled with water and mini beach balls, a kiddie pool full of toys, a giant beach ball that sprayed water out everywhere, and the biggest hit, this awesome slide pool.

Slide Pool

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A funny thing happened with the bubble machines: I grabbed one online, and then, unknowingly, my mom and Warren each grabbed one at Walmart. So we had three bubble machines! We discovered, however, that three machines were absolutely necessary.

For party favors, Malcolm had to share the bubble love, but we also included a beach ball and a board book.

Triangle pennants around the patio

Inside, I went for the understated but everywhere type of idea.

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We, of course, had an Ella station full of pictures of Malcolm’s best friend.

Tassels

Poor Malcolm had boring healthy smash cake, but everyone else got Funfetti, the best cupcake, in my esteemed opinion.

Cake Topper

Y’all, my mom and I MADE this beach ball garland! I am basically becoming a craft queen (lol NOPE). We used this post as inspiration but cheated with Amazon for the mini beach balls.

Once everything was set, it was party time!

Warren’s parents came all the way from Toronto, my best friends/soul mates came from Nashville and helped me so much (they went to Walmart at 11 PM Friday night when we discovered I didn’t have the right size cake pan for Malcolm’s smash cake!) (and thank you, Marty, for being the best photographer!), my parents and aunt, especially my mom, worked nonstop with me to pull off the party, and all of our friends from Lagrange who welcomed us so openly came over to celebrate our little Malcolm.

Malcolm’s Party Rashguard & Swim Trunks 

After Malcolm played for a while, we got him ready for the most special part of the party– his Doljabi celebration!

Warren’s stepfamily (real family!) is Korean and so we’ve been able to see our nieces and nephews celebrate with a Korean celebration. I was so excited to have Malcolm do doljabi, a tradition where the child is placed in front of various objects and then chooses one or two items where each choice represents a certain future for the child.

Malcolm did a great job! He kept his hat on the whole time (the first of seven grandchildren to!) and had so much fun playing with the rice (the first to choose the rice too!). Warren’s Ummah always let’s the kids choose three or four objects (why not!).

Malcolm chose:

  • Rice: he’ll never go hungry and he’ll be healthy!
  • MONEY: he’ll have entrepreneurial and business success! (Really it means he’ll be rich, but Warren put his Warren spin on it.)
  • Thread: he’ll be a celebrity or into fashion or something creative and cool!
  • A pen: he’ll write!

This was such a special part of Malcolm’s birthday, my favorite part.

Next it was time for the smash cake, of which Malcolm only ate the blueberries off of lol.

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His birthday was so special and we are all so lucky to be so loved. I hope I can always give Malcolm even a fraction of the joy he brings us every single day. Happy one year, my baby!

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