We’re officially the parents of a one year old! Our son turned 1 on Christmas Eve, and to celebrate, we held a small birthday party and baby dedication!
My son’s favorite song is B-I-N-G-O, so we decided on a farm-themed birthday party for him. When I first had the idea, I told Jonathan and he laughed at me, saying it would be impossible to find a petting farm in Nairobi. Well, I proved him wrong and found Adventure Farm Kenya! It’s a petting farm with cows, geese, pigs, chickens, and rabbits. I was actually most excited about taking TKB to pet the animals, but unfortunately we didn’t get a chance due to time constraints.
Jonathan and I split up party planning tasks, and I was in charge of decor. My biggest concern was having people seated far enough away from one another because we’re still in a pandemic. Adventure Farm had tons of haystacks available so I started poring over Pinterest for hay seating and other baby birthday party ideas, and I came across a bunch of hay couch inspiration photos. To execute the vision, I reached out to Picnics by Njoki, who specializes in picnic decor but was down for a custom project. I was most excited about this little teepee that is included in her Boho package — so cute! I found some cow print balloons and they really helped make this setup the perfect photo backdrop.
Jonathan was in charge of the cake and he (surprisingly) came through! We almost had a fight about the cake LOL, but once I gave it up, he took full control and it was absolutely perfect. We also had a smash cake since that was one of the baby birthday party ideas we really wanted to try, but TKB was NOT interested in it at all ?. We actually took his hands and dug them into the cake and he started crying. I guess he doesn’t like to get dirty!
Although TKB won’t remember this at all, it was really important for us to try and have a socially distanced gathering to take advantage of the fact that both sets of grandparents and godparents were around. My dad is a reverend, so he led the baby dedication and said a prayer of blessing over our son. Although his first year of life was made complex by a pandemic, I’m glad we were still able to find a small way to celebrate his birthday and captured amazing moments that we’ll cherish forever.
Photography by Wanini Wambui.
I loved celebrating my son’s 1st birthday…it’s the memories that count..he’s now 3 years old and I have approximately 1-2 more birthdays that I can control decor, cake etc without his input..enjoy the early years ..they do go by fast!
Lol I’ll keep that in mind!
Beautiful! Congratulations on the miracle baby’s 1st birthday ?
Thank you so very much!!
This is so beautiful. My heart is so moved especially after reading your caption on IG. God is truly Good. So happy for you Ijeoma and all blessings to your family ❤️
Thank you so much Wangui!
Wow,this was perfect
Thanks!