Green Eggs and Ham birthday party: the details

These posts are going to have to be broken up into two or three parts because there are so many things to see! This post is just going to be the details: decorations, food, etc.

Warning: picture overload!

All photos by Wendy Woodall of A Southern Accent!


Because they have such a spacious house, my in-laws offered to let us hold the party at their house. We kind of took over and they were such good sports about letting me move things around to make room for party decorations.

We had two of these cute little orange pinwheels outside with fun green and orange ribbon tied to them. And my mom added the ribbon and the Green Eggs and Ham book to the wreath.

When guests walked in, we asked them to sign the “guest book” which was copy of Green Eggs and Ham. I wanted Hudson to have a keepsake from the big day of who was there to celebrate his first year!

In the house, immediately to the right of the front door is the dining room where we set up the dessert table. My mom is a candy buffet master and hauled all of her beautiful containers all the way from Dallas. We also had cake balls and cupcakes in addition to all of the jelly beans, M&Ms, gummy orange and lime slices, circus peanuts, lollypops, and rock candy.

We used plain white table cloths, but cut out circles in green and orange to make it more festive.

Heading into the family room, we hung an adorable banner with Hudson’s name on it.

The family room is such a large space and we needed a good way to get the green and orange in there, so I decided to rent a helium tank and buy two packs of green and orange balloons. My dad, my FIL, and I spent a large part of the morning on Saturday blowing up, tying, and attaching ribbon to the balloons.

We played the video I made for Hudson in the family room and decorated the mantle with orange flowers in green buckets. I found the paper umbrellas and paper lanterns and decided to use them to decorate the fireplace. The adorable “Happy Birthday Hudson” banner is one of my favorite things!

On the back wall of the family room, I displayed all of Hudson’s monthly pictures in green and orange buckets filled with jelly beans. The orange polka dot table runner added such a great splash of color and the “Celebrate” painting looked perfect there! (p.s. I’ll be doing a giveaway based on that “Celebrate” painting later this week!)

The main food was in the kitchen and at the breakfast table. We served hot dogs, barbecue, macaroni and cheese, baked beans, and of course, green (deviled) eggs and ham!

The party favors, in addition to the candy, were sugar cookies iced to look like a green ham!

We had a lot of fun with the drinks! In the canisters, we served Arnold Palmers or “adult lemonade” and regular lemonade in the other canister. We found cute green and white striped straws to go with the drinks.

Then in green buckets on stands, we had Jones soda in orange cream and green apple flavor. We also had bottled water (that I individually labeled), beer, and juice boxes.

At the end of the party, we passed around creamsicles and limesicles made with either orange Crush, orange sherbet, and vanilla ice cream or 7-Up, lime sherbet, and vanilla ice cream. Like a Coke float, but even better! So yummy!

my beautiful cousin with her orange creamsicle!

The party was truly a labor of love. Between TC and me, my parents, and TC’s parents, everyone worked so hard to make this a great party. We are so thankful for the love and support that Hudson has all around him.

It took a few months to get everything planned and brought together from rolling silverware at night while watching The Bachelorette and cutting out foam circles during nap time to my mother-in-law making deviled eggs and cake balls to my mom making gorgeous bows, arranging flowers, and driving halfway across the country to celebrate with us!

Tomorrow I’ll show more pictures of the fun people that were there and you can see lots of pictures of the cute birthday boy!

the night before…

Our lives are going to change tomorrow. There’s no way around it. We’re checking into the hospital at 5:30 tomorrow morning and the induction begins at 6:30. I have no idea how quickly things will progress or how long they expect it to take. It could be a long day or a short day. I hope to be able to keep everyone informed via Twitter (if you don’t already follow me, just click on the Twitter button on the right sidebar) and do a couple of blog posts as the day moves along.

More than anything, we’re praying for a safe delivery for Baby Boy and for me. I’m praying that Todd will be calm and comfortable and that any anxiety he is experiencing will melt away. I’m praying for both sets of grandparents that they will be the rocks we need them to be and the perfect examples of unconditional love for our precious son. I’m praying that our son will arrive perfectly and healthy and that he will grow up to love Jesus. We pray that he will have great relationships with our parents and our friends and that he will constantly be surrounded by love.

This is probably the most sentimental pregnancy post I’ve written, right?

I’m sitting here trying to come up with an idea in my mind of what exactly is about to happen, but I honestly have no idea. I know a general rundown of tomorrow, but I don’t know what the pain will feel like. I don’t know how the epidural will feel. I don’t know much. I don’t know if this boy will be too big for me to push out and if I’ll end up with a c-section. But while I don’t know the answers, I don’t care. I can’t tell you what’s about to happen, but I can tell you what it feels like to look back.

When I got married a year ago I got really emotional because I felt like I really had to grow up. There was a huge mix of happiness and sadness that came with that. Today, as I sit and think about my life up to this point, a few things come to mind:

  • What did my parents feel like the day they drove to the hospital to have me? Were they scared? Excited?
  • Our little house in Baton Rouge. I spent so many great years there. My dad taught me to ride a bike there. Santa Claus brought us our dachshund puppy there. Singing songs with my mom.
  • The day my brother was born. I was a jealous older sister, but I can’t imagine my life without my perfect sibling– the person who will be there with me to the end.
  • The day I graduated from high school and moved back to Louisiana by myself. I was so excited, but still so sad to leave my family.
  • The day I graduated from college and the summer I spent backpacking through Europe with one of my besties. I can’t imagine what my parents felt like sending me over there by myself for so long with just a backpack and a train ticket.
  • The day I graduated from graduate school and started my first real job. I was supposed to be “grown up” then, but I totally wasn’t.
  • The day I met Todd. I knew immediately that I was meeting my husband the father of my future children and now here we are… (excuse me, I’m crying while I type this…)
  • I’m thinking now about our parents and how grateful I am to them for all they’ve given us and taught us about love. I hope with all of heart that we can make the impact on this child that they’ve made on us.
  • And finally, just as my Dad (Poppie) started praying on the day I was born for my future husband, I’m praying for another family. Another family somewhere who will raise a young woman and she will become Baby Boy’s wife and the mother of his children.

I’m sorry to have gotten so sentimental, but I know that I will have to really grow up tomorrow. I will be completely responsible for another life (with Todd’s amazing help, of course) and I don’t want these nostalgic feelings to disappear because of stress and busy-ness.

I appreciate all of you so much. My real life friends, my family, my fantastic blog friends (that I can’t even imagine not knowing now), and anyone who just stops by to check in. Thank you for cheering us on. I’ll keep you all posted!

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