First Birthday Party!

Happy Birthday to My Sweet Baby Girl!

We celebrated our cute little one's 1st birthday party last weekend.  I can't believe how fast the time goes.  It reminds me of this beautiful song by Mindy Gledhill.  

I was so happy with how everything turned out and even happier with the beautiful family who came {through the snow} to share their love with our babe.  I've never seen {E} so happy and excited in a big group, so I know she was happy everyone was there.

When I was trying to come up with the theme for her party, I had TONS of ideas including: sparkles, My Fair Lady, Winter "One"derland, balloons, rainbow, princess, and more!  Then I started to think about what {E} really likes.  My first thought was FOOD. Haha!  My second thought was Books.  I knew it had to be books.  Her favorite activity is pulling all her books off the shelf and reading them over and over.  Bonus!  I could use all of her fun books as part of my decor.  And as a former teacher, I already had a deep love of everything books. It was a done deal.

I found a couple of ideas on Pinterest to inspire the aspects of her party {see previous post}.

Kayla Aimee Writes

The Party Teacher

Johnson and Johnson

So here it is!  All the fun decorations and stuff we ate and did!

Number 1 Collage & Favor

I loved picking out the pictures from {E}'s first year to include in this.  It made my heart happy to see her cousins and other family members taking a minute to see how much she's grown and changed. You can also spy my favor for our party guests!  I paired it with Dr. Suess' "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish" book.  It was a individual bag of colored Swedish Fish with a tag...

Other Decorations

I basically used every single children's book I had! I put them everywhere I could and used colorful accents everywhere else.  For the banners I went to Deseret Industries and found some books with really sweet pictures and a regular chapter book that was all text.  I cut out pennants and put them together with sparkly ribbon!  I printed out the letters for "Happy 1st Birthday" and "One" for two special banners.

Menu

This was my favorite part!  I used books to help plan the menu.  I wanted the food to relate to the book.  Here's what we came up with:

"Dragons Love Tacos"

Tacos in a shell or in a bag {yes they are delicious} with all the yummy toppings!

"The Very Hungry Caterpillar"

Lots of delicious fruit! Complete with clementines, {E}'s favorite!

"Peter Rabbit"

A beautiful spread of all the veggies Peter could want!

"If You Give a Cat a Cupcake"

For those too eager to wait for a slice of cake. 

"A Bad Case of Stripes"

I bet you can't guess what's going on under that white frosting!

I wish I had gotten a better picture of the actual cake. We used a "1" shaped cake pan and it turned out huge and adorable.

Game

I love a good game at a party!  I made a quick game to have each family present race to see who could match different books with their FIRST lines {because it was a FIRST birthday, yeah??}. I forgot to take a picture of the prize, it was a cute book with some fruit snacks.

Smash Cake

We were all excited to watch this little foodie dig in! And she did!! Although more neatly than I anticipated. 

My very favorite find for {E}'s birthday was the book "The Wonderful Things You Will Be" by Emily Winfield Martin.  

I love the message and the colorful, whimsical illustrations.  I don't know if I could pick a favorite line, but I'll end with this one.

"For all of your tinniness couldn't disguise a heart so enormous...and wild...and wise."

I love you sweet birthday girl!

{Natalie}

First Birthday!

Ummm...where has the time gone?!  My sweet baby girl will be turning 1 in just over a week.  As I've been preparing for her 1st Birthday Party, I thought, "This is the kind of stuff I wanted to blog about before, but never did because I was never actually doing it."

I did a lot of research {spending time on Pinterest} to come up with fun ideas for her party.  I quickly realized that she's turning 1 and therefore does not care much about anything that goes on {except for the cake...my baby is a serious foodie}.  Which quickly set me on the "simplify" route.

Here are some of the best ideas I found for throwing a 1st Birthday Party {or pretty much any birthday party}!

A Number 1 Photo Collage

You can have it uniform like the one above or go for a more DIY look.

Birthday Chalkboard

These are too fun! I found a cute blog that will help you create your own.

Fun Theme with Menu/Snacks

There really is not limit to what you could come up with as your theme.  I really liked the idea of Pajamas & Pancakes, but felt that was more of a morning/early afternoon type of party which wouldn't work with our schedule.  I found an awesome list of ideas {it says for girls but most could work for boys as well} over at My Little Moppet.

The Infamous Smash Cake

So cute and a delicious way for your little one to know today is not like any other day!

{which have you seen this video? Our sweet babe will totally be doing this!}

Thank You Favor

I love the idea of sending home a little part of the party with each guest.  That's why I think it's a good idea to incorporate your theme again into your favor.  Whether it's big or small, guests love the parting treat {I know I always do!} and knowing their presence was appreciated.

Other Decorations

There are so many fun ideas to help you decide on or inspire the decor for the birthday bash.  The space where the party will be held really almost creates the decoration opportunities for you.  Whether it is outside, in your home, at an ice rink, or your local bowling alley...take some time to look at the structures available to help decide if you can use banners, balloons, lanterns, tables/linens, etc.  This is mostly up to your individual style/desire for "a look".  I think it creates an atmosphere that will foster happiness and fun. 

I'm excited to share pictures of how Miss E.'s party goes!  We are going to have a lot of wonderful people to celebrate with and we can't wait!!!

{Natalie}