The Murphy Family : Picture Post: Sawyer's Birthday Dinner

I want to say a heart-felt thank you to our family and friends who came out on Friday night to celebrate and remember Sawyer for what should have been his first birthday. I know I didn't say much at the dinner but I knew it would just be me in tears through most of it. It was so nice to be surrounded by those that love us and love him and just be together. I didn't take as many pictures that night as I had intended, but oh well. In fact, the only picture of Josh and I at the actual dinner is a blurry one from my phone. The thing about pictures is that they really have nothing on the memories I will hold in my heart forever. I would be lying if I said this weekend went exactly as I planned. I was sorely disappointed by people I thought should be there, and weren't. I was irritated it was scheduled to rain for the walk (praising God it didn't). I got to the dinner late and forgot several things. My heart was completely broken for what should have been, and what was missing. All in all I tried my hardest to focus on those that were there for us and spend time remembering Sawyer. The devil is good at getting us to focus on the negative, it really pulls us down and away from God. Thankfully the Lord has blessed me with family/friends who go above and beyond for when others don't and they help me realize we are loved and so is our precious son.

We had Sawyer's dinner at La Cazuela in Lawrenceville because they have an upper private room that we were able to rent out. I made photo canvases for each table with different pictures of Sawyer and then we had a vase of sunflowers and a floating candle vase with floating red heart candles. I was so excited when I found those! I also turned my blog posts from last year in to a book and had it delivered the day before the dinner so our families would be able to see it - it was perfect and I can't wait to do the same this year! During the day Friday I made 72 cupcakes and decorated them each with sunflowers. They were by no means perfect, but made with a whole lot of love. Our idea was to have our families fill out cards for Rhory telling her all about her big brother. We also had a canvas with a heart stamp so that our families could stamp the canvas and sign their name. After dinner we headed to the grave site to release lanterns (people wrote on little labels to stick on the lanterns) and put out the pinwheels.

I don't have a picture of all of the tables, but this was our table.

The banner reads "Happy Birthday" and the cupcakes have sunflowers on them.

We made little keepsakes for our family members with Sawyer's picture.


Unfortunately we didn't grab a picture of these the night of, so I am improvising. The canvas is what people signed with the stamp, and the box is for Rhory. It holds the letters that everyone wrote to her, telling her all about Sawyer.