I was prepared to spend Baby D's first birthday at home....or so I thought. I was prepared to watch our reservations at Disney be cancelled one by one on the app. Even with all the preparation, I was still surprised at my reaction once the cancellations took place. I was a complete and utter mess. Trust, me I know how this sounds and I have admonished myself a 1000X over it, but a reaction is a reaction and not one I had much control over. But there is something about celebrating big milestones in the House of Mouse that has always put us in a certain mindframe. However, with that being said, we were healthy, the kids were healthy and they are at the age where playing with a box is fun so I let myself have a good cry over it and then started making alternate plans.
The original plan was reservations at O'hana with a bunch of friends and Baby D's first haircut had been scheduled for the barbershop on Main Street. We have eaten many times at O'hana, so the barbershop cancellation hit me the hardest. I just have a thing about firsts and making them as special as possible for us and the kids.
I am not giving up on doing this quite yet and since I have no interest in giving my kid a bowl cut, I have just clipped his hair back with clips in very masculine colors...or as masculine as a hair clip can be ;). Now I am excited about having enough hair to cut to give him a little baby mohawk (bring on the Mickey glitter).
Even with the cancellation, the Hubs and I already knew and had discussed at length that we weren't going to be going, but it was emotional nonetheless.
At the beginning of the pandemic, I pinterested every activity, disney theme night, kids cooking tutorials I could to keep the kids occupied and having fun. In doing so, it kept us busy as well. As I have posted, we have had theme nights and movie nights and have purchased the craziest things off of Amazon, Target, and shopDisney (here's looking at you waffle and pizza maker) to make sure that the kids would have as many homebound experiences as possible. Honestly, it is hard to know when to pull the plug when buying on shopDisney as some items go really fast, some times go on mad sale (traditionally the day after you purchased it at full price) and sometimes if you wait too long, the item is no longer available for purchase. This happened with both the waffle maker and pizza maker, so I was glad to scoop them up when I did. Yes, they were on the pricier side, but we use them at the very least 2 to 3 times a week, so they were well worth the price. I tend to wait on other things that we like, such as ; pajamas and costumes as they can get very deeply discounted and then additional percentages off are often included.
Around April, Hubs and I began to plan Baby D's birthday. I wasn't ready to give up on the O'hana theme, so that is what we went with. The first planning of our food menu was extremely ambitious, would require a lot of work, and would probably have me in tears by lunch, so that went on the chopping block quite quickly (thanks to the Hubs who did a lot of eye rolls and sideeyes when I gave him a shopping list that included pineapple, whipping cream, sourdough bread and a bunch of other oddities). I had spent an inordinate amount of time looking up either O'hana recipes or the recipes from the Hawaiian stand during Food and Wine.
For breakfast we planned Mickey Waffles and 'sticky buns' (cinnamon rolls), for lunch we ordered Asian (we were planning a pool day so this would be the easiest) and for dinner we did pulled pork sliders with pineapple chutney and coriander wings (the recipes were straight from O'hana and yes, he still had to get pineapple). I had done the pulled pork in the crockpot the day before and shredded it. We put it in the fridge and then just warmed it up in the oven the day of. I highly suggest this method. It was perfect an throwing it in the oven allowed for it to crisp up a little more. We also marinated the wings overnight so all that we had to do was add the rub and pop them in the oven (we ended up having to put them in the broiler as well since they did not crisp up as much as we normally like) I also made Baby D's 'smashcake' the day before as everything I read talked about how it was easier to ice after being refrigerated overnight and since we went on a cake mix and frosting spree at the beginning of the pandemic, I had it in droves. Moral of the story, doing everything the day before to alleviate panic and pandemonium the day of, is the way to go!
We ordered one-year decorations off of Target and I have an entire box of luau inspired decorations that I have collected over the years from Target's Bullseye area ( we are in Florida so anything with pineapples and flamingos on it is always a good idea) that we have never gotten around to using. I actually had the blow up 'one' balloon for awhile and by awhile I mean it was intended for EV and I totally forgot I had it (hence why I know have party boxes in the garage). If you have not checked out the new Sunguard line at Target, what are you doing with your life?! It is so stinking cute, so bright and fun and everything is so decently priced. As seen in the compilation picture above, I finally found a flamingo pool float that was the perfect size for my petite princess and at $3 it was steal. Those pineapple and panda melamine plates were only $1.79 so I bought six as we can reuse them and they looked adorable to serve at dinner and those pineapple stacking bowls were only $8 and I used them for the pulled pork, pineapple chutney, and the wings. It really added to the theme and I felt there were things we would get a lot of use out of, so it was worth the purchase.
In addition, shopDisney had adorable one-year Mickey decorations. We just ordered the tabletop decorations as I didn't want too many "looks", but I couldn't pass them up. Honestly, the reality is, he was turning one and although I wanted to make it special, I also didn't want to spend a lot of the day cleaning up, but rather soaking in all his 'one-ness'. Hence why the Disney plan initially was so attractive.
So this part is just a little compulsive, but I did put all the decorations that I had planned to use for his birthday in a box and out of the way of three year old grabby hands. I didn't want to risk forgetting anything that I meant to put out (hullo EV's 'one' year balloon) or risk putting something away and forgetting I had it altogether. It allowed me the day before to pull the box down and decorate without a hassle or go crazy trying to find something that I didn't know where I put it. Additionally, I have an awesome Lilly Pulitzer "to-do" book where I put all my 'pandemic ideas' and where I write down my plan for any event. I love that it has no dates in the book so I can just add things whenever, plus it is super bright and happy looking in pure LP style.
Having everything written down in one place, allows me to make sure that I have everything that I need, what I still need to do or pick up, what I am planning to cook and the outfits for the day (I know...I know...I totally judge me too). Plus, Hubs was able to help by looking at it on his own without me having to verbalize the plan over and over. Since I am working from home it can be a really overwhelming day, plus I am transitioning (and by transitioning I mean walking from my home office into the living room where the kids mainly are) to mom mode at the end of the day, so its good to have some sort of structure laid out.
I bought a 4" Nordicware cake pan off of Target as that was Pinterest's suggestion for the size of a "smash cake", however I am no longer seeing it online and it no longer appears to be in my 'Orders' in Target (shrugging emojii). If you have never made a cake this size before I suggest a trial run and a cupcake pan for extras (EV was a BIG fan of this suggestion). The first one I made was raw and because I kept checking it, it fell flat. Thirty-five minutes seemed like an unreasonably long amount of time for such a small cake, but it is exactly what it needed. I am sorry Google I never should have doubted you (except when it comes to weather....your weather prediction is the worst...even day of). All that trouble and just like EV, little boy was not a fan of the sweet...case in point...
Having a list also made sure that I was able to order everything early...and by early I mean two months in advance. As you all are aware, the pandemic slowed down a lot of delivery and we were not those people that were moseying into Target for anything less than essentials and groceries. FYI people that complained about delivery services during this time are awful...there I said it...#sorrynotsorry. If I planned accordingly, you can too, buy yourself a planner, problem solved. I digress...therefore, I was prepared for extremely long wait times of anything I was ordering that was not considered essential by the warehouses, but I knew that I would still be getting it in time.
In going with the O'hana theme we had the Lilo and Stitch movie playing in the house (EV is not a big fan of the Stitch even though she loves the idea of him lol) and Israel Kamakawiwoʻole and the Lilo and Stitch music playing outside on our speakers (just like it would be at a Disney resort). In other news, I am a complete sucker for the Hawaiian Roller Coaster song.
I had mentioned in a previous post that my mom and I had purchased a bunch of ShopDress dresses at our Character Warehouse. One of them was made for any Disney dinner at the Polynesian and had dole whips all over them. We wore the dresses "to dinner" (aka our living room) as we would have at O'hana. Hubs with only a slight bit of coaxing wore Stitch pajama pants (he would not have worn this at dinner lol) that we had for the outdoor movie nights on the cruise and my mom had purchased Baby D the cutest Stitch overalls from shopDisney.
My mom was able to find the cutest Mickey Mouse Birthday Boy t-shirt on Carter's and Target had an awesome Marvel birthday boy shirt that was on sale for $4 online so we scooped up both. I apologize that I am one of those parents that likes outfit changes for birthday photos.
During the day for relaxing by the "Polynesian" pool, EV and I had matching Lilo swimsuits and Baby D had Stitch swim trunks and a rashguard. Have you caught on yet, that Hubs could careless about the themed dress life. If you are ever looking for cute and flattering Disney adult swimsuits, I suggest HerUniverse. She was having a major sale so I bought several. They did arrive in a HotTopic bag so I suggest checking both sites to see who is having the better deals. The quality was excellent and I didn't feel that I was 42 trying to pass off as my daughter's bff. They washed great too, but I use laundry bags for anything that is delicate or I am afraid that the color will run.
As pictured above, I am actually glad we did not 1. spend money on a store bought smash cake 2. Try to figure out how to safely have contact-less delivery of said smashcake. EV loves the 'idea' of sweet and an occasional cookie or fruit snack pouch, but my girl is just like me and will choose the salty savory life all day everyday. Her brother as picture above obviously is going the same route. He daintily picked at it with his fingers, looked disgusted that we would offer it to him and then refused to put any in his mouth even when coaxed (there might have been some reflux there to prove his point).
The pictures were well worth it however...
Yes, obviously the Disney Parks and our Friends and Family were missed, but for those that are having the same heartache, It can be just as magical...I promise. We had our health and surrounded each other with love and all the things that make our days in the park magical...and the most important part...this one right here partied into his single digits with the best of them....
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