In the Payne house, Birthday Weeks are a real thing. We love doing everything we can to make whoever is celebrating their birthday feel as special as possible. Getting to celebrate Abner’s birthday is something we’ve been super excited about. We are so grateful for his precious little life.

We went out the night before his birthday to grab a few last-minute decorations and pieces for his birthday. One of our stops was at a small enchanting little toy store where Emet hand-picked his gift for Abner. When we came home, we got both of the boys ready for bed and read a special book for Abner’s Birthday eve - Birthday Monsters by Sandra Boynton.

The next morning, Calvin went out and picked up donuts for all of us. We’ve tried to keep donuts and sweets from our boys when they’re babies and introduce cake, donuts, etc. on their birthday. Well, needless to say, Abner was a big fan.

After breakfast, we loaded our stuff in the car and headed to our favorite local public pool. I knew I wanted to share Abner’s birthday morning at the pool together because he loves water so much. He’s never been nervous or reserved around water. It’s one of his favorite things. We stayed for a couple of hours then headed back to the house for naps.

After naps, we spent time opening gifts together and prepping dinner. My dear friend Abigail came over and we all shared birthday dinner and cupcakes together.

We knew we also wanted to have a small gathering for Abner’s birthday. Once we found out family desired to be in town, we pushed his actual party out a little bit. We wanted to have something that was small and intimate. So we kept it just that. One of Abner’s first words was “up” and he went through a period where he was obsessed with everything that had to do with up. We felt a great way to capture this part of Abner’s personality at one, would be to have an “up” themed party with a bunch of balloons and things that go up.

We used a new company for our party invites called Greenvelope. I loved their selection of designs and the ways that you are able to customize the invitations. They’ve thought of everything and made this part of the party planning process really enjoyable.

We made some hanging hot air balloon mobiles to hang in the trees and in some of the windows inside the house. It really helped pull together the theme of the party. We also used the soundtrack from the movie Up on repeat in the background throughout the day. With the combination of the breezy weather and whimsical music, it felt like time stood still for a brief moment.

I love selecting simple tasty food options for events like this. We wanted to have a selection of Abner’s favorite food. For the record, this kid will eat just about anything you put in front of him, but his favorite at the time was strawberries. We did chicken salad on croissants, turkey sandwiches with strawberries, and italian pasta salad.

Our time together was so sweet and the day was completely magical. Everything from the weather to sweet conversation in the back yard. The boys played in the pool and threw water balloons, while the rest of us enjoyed food, cake, and a few games of Jenga.

| Credits: Author: Jacintha Payne; Photography - Jacintha & Calvin Payne |