what the DOHL!? (part 1): by amy

Last night, as I wearily crawled into bed and comfortably rested my head on my pillow, I sighed.

I feel like I just got married.

But, I didn't get married.

It was just my son's first birthday party.  What the dohl!?

Logan's birthday is coming up this Friday (8/24), but we held his dohl (Korean 1st birthday party) this past weekend at Stone House at Stirling Ridge.  It's a restaurant/venue that the husband and I enjoyed and thought it would be a great place to hold a dohl.  The Korean 1st birthday party is kind of a big deal.  It's probably the kid's 2nd largest party next to his wedding.  We figured we'd invite everyone who joined us for the baby shower, since they were the ones who got to see Logan grow over the past year.  Somehow we ended up with 137 of our closest friends and family....and friends of family.  "Friends of family" = $$ for Logan's college fund (and my our future iPad).  So, I guess I couldn't really argue with that! :)

I decided to save money by making everything myself-- centerpieces, display/dohl tables, a "Giving Tree," a popcorn bar, "Big Kid Bags," a slideshow, and a hot-air-balloon-photobooth.  Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures of these just yet, but will post them later for the part II entry.  But the theme was loosely a vintage hot air balloon-type of theme.  I got my inspiration from this etsy store and by perusing my favorite party-planning site, hostess with the mostess.

My ridiculously talented sister-in-law made not one, but TWO gorgeous birthday cakes for Logan:

Carrot cake!

Mini Carrot Cake

These cakes were not intended to be consumed by the party guests; however, they were inadvertently sliced up and somehow served to all of our guests!  It was like the 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish that fed the 5,000.  OK, maybe not quite that extreme, but you get the idea.  We also ordered cupcakes from Pink Cake Box in lieu of a big birthday cake:

Vanilla and Red Velvet Cupcakes

To add to the sugar-rush, my old acquaintance from grade school (who I reunited with after 16 years thanks to Facebook!) started a bakery called Pink Flour Bakery in Lawrenceville, NJ, and created these beautiful sugar cookies to go with the hot air balloon theme:

So, after 5 trips to Michael's, 3 trips to Ikea, 2 trips to Target, 1 trip to Home Depot, 1 trip to Costco, I-forget-how-many Etsy orders, and 4 months of crafting from 7-10pm every night, Logan's DIY dohl was complete.  I had to admit that I did find pleasure in working on this project.  It was a nice way to release my creative juices after doing my day job and mommy duties each day.  Husband already wants me to start thinking about baby #2's dohl to make sure I put the same amount of time and effort to his/her party as the first-born's!  (He is a 2nd-born...and no, I am not pregnant).

Will post more about the planning in part II!