Even before I became a mother, I looked forward to throwing birthday parties for my hypothetical children. So when it came time to plan my daughter’s first birthday, I was pumped to say the least! Her name is Violeta, so I wanted to have an all-purple extravaganza. We also wanted to have her party at our home in Mexico City. After traveling for most of the summer, it felt wonderful to be home and stuff our home with family and friends.
Knowing that we would have family and friends traveling in for her birthday, we decided to also have her baptism that same morning. The Catholic Church down the street has the cutest little tiny chapel that we were able to reserve just for our girl. My husband and I each asked one of our best friends to be the godparents, and we had a nice, short and sweet ceremony with just our closest friends and family. Afterwards we walked the short distance along the park back to our home to set up for the birthday party!
I had spent many nights before our summer travels making purple pom poms and purple paper flowers to use as party decorations. I can only work on things with my hands when our baby is sleeping. During the day, I am too busy chasing after her and keeping her alive! So at night while she slept, I would cover our dining table with these projects while having something playing on Netflix in the background, usually Beyonce’s Homecoming!
It turned out that many of Violeta’s aunties and uncles helped us prepare for the party–from making paper flowers to blowing up balloons and cutting and tying ribbons and tinsel throughout our home. We had a lot of fun getting ready for her birthday. But the best thing we did was to outsource the food! We wanted to have tacos for her birthday, so we decided to have tacos de guisado catered. It was awesome! The taco lady showed up right before the party with all the tacos prepared and kept warm in individual clay pots, and she also set up a serving table in our hallway with eight different kinds of tacos, including two veggie options, plus beans & rice and two aguas frescas, Jamaica & Limon. Not only were the tacos delicious, but the awesome taco lady also served them, brought her own plates, and took all the dirty plates with her when she left after serving for two hours. It was such a great service, and I love that woman! Her food service made our party run so smoothly!
For the birthday girl’s cake, I knew better than to try to attempt to make it myself. My oven is ancient, tiny, and unreliable. We ordered her cake from our favorite baking genius in Mexico City: Licha Pasteleria! She made a beautiful buttermilk cake in shades of purple and decorated with purple edible flowers, as well as a mini carrot cake just for the baby along with purple colored almond macarons with cassis and lavender filling. Everything was beautiful and delicious! Violeta’s birthday cake was her first taste of real sugar….she is definitely a fan! She was chewing on her little bamboo fork getting every bit of frosting and cake off of it! (I had ordered bamboo forks and paper plates to serve the cake on because single-use plastic just makes me depressed about the state of the planet!)
Violeta loves music, and we wanted to have some live music for our guests, so we hired a two-man Marimba to play for the party. These guys were fabulous. The instrument itself is beautiful, and these two brothers that play together had a really awesome charisma! Our baby was mesmerized by them, and they played a nice range of songs from “La Vie en rose” to “Las Mañanitas,” which is the Mexican birthday song, to a bunch of other fun songs that I have no idea what they are called. Some people danced and others just watched them play. The baby also took a nap right in the middle of all the commotion!
They played for three hours, and then sadly they had to move on to their next party. We switched to a playlist and the baby entertained us all by dancing while holding onto the speaker. Violeta loves an audience! By this point in the party, she had no more party dress on and was shaking her cute little booty in only a pair of ruffled bloomers. During her dance performance, she let go of the speaker and stood by herself, independently, not holding onto anything, for the first time ever. Our little show off!
First birthday parties are a lot of fun and full of emotion. Our baby girl had a great time at her party–but really, in my humble opinion–the first birthday party is for the parents. Thank you to everyone who made it to the party to celebrate our awesome baby girl! We made it through our first year as parents to this little cutie. She is still alive, she is happy, and she surprises us everyday with new tricks! Violeta fills our world with so much love. I am so grateful to be along for the ride on this adventure of her life. Te amamos, Violeta!
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