Alexa's Owl Themed 1st Birthday (August 1st, 2010)

Invite, designed by myself (with some creative help from Etsy) 

and ordered from Shutterfly

G/B/U: Alexa's birthday party went really well. We had 31 people over to celebrate her first and golden birthday! The only downside was that she is going through a stranger anxiety phase and that combined with a short morning nap made for a clingy little toddler. Her party went by so quick, I felt like I blinked and it was over.

The food went over well, I forgot to take a picture though. The menu was:

Jalapeno Smash Burgers
'Shroom & Swiss Burgers
Pesto Pasta Salad
Steakhouse Potato Salad
Broccoli Slaw
Veggies & Dip
Fruit & Dip
Taco Dip & Chips
7 Layer Bars
Cupcakes
Pink Lemonade
Fruit Punch

Baby Trail Mix (A mix of Cheerios, puffs, Organic Smilies, & Goldfish)

Alexa's Outfit: Etsy seller SewPoshBaby

Cupcakes: Target (the frosting was melting pretty good here since it was 80+ degrees out). Cupcake toppers I made

 Birthday hats/plates/napkins/etc: Birthday Express

Cupcake tower: I DIY'ed basically making tutus

Paint your own bird house station 

This was a huge hit with the kids 

Owl Pinata from Birthday Express

I hit up the dollar store for play dough/stickers/bracelets/mini rubber duckies and other toddler friendly items to add to the candy in the pinata

Our set up. Eric's aunt has two of these tents so it makes for a nice, easy & free shelter. Tables we rented from a local party rental shop.

I forgot to have Alexa in her birthday hat, but here she at her 12 month pics. 

Hat from Etsy seller shoplissy

And her birthday thank you cards, which I designed and ordered from Shutterfly, leaving enough white space fore a personal thank you greeting ;)

Karter's First Birthday

We did a flowers and headbands theme for Karter's 1st birthday party.

I made this banner for Karter.  I am hoping to reuse it for Karter's 2nd birthday.

 This was the birthday girl's seat.  She had white cake with whipped cream frosting.  She loved it.

 This was the outside setup, complete with tarps and heating lamps.  I put pillowcases over the chairbacks because I got ugly brown chairs for free and I wanted to spruce them up.

   FOOD!

 Dessert!  I ended up making white cake, chocolate pudding, vanilla pudding, and topping with Oreo Cookies.  I put one flower pot at each place setting.

 Drink signs - water, beer, and soda.  We also had Sangria and wine.

We did a photobooth and it was a huge hit!   I made personalized photostrip thank you cards for everyone that got into the photobooth.  This was for my mom and her boyfriend.

This is the card that we gave to people who didn't get into the photobooth.

This is the invite.  Designed by me and printed by Mpix.

I ordered flowers for the decor from http://www.bunchesdirect.com/.  It was fantastic.  I recommend ordering 3 days before the event, as opposed to just one so the flowers open up all the way.  I got 180 stems for $180 including shipping.  I got a  bunch of cheap flowers - gardenias, large and small, roses, and lisanthemus.  I also got gladiolas but they didn't make it out because we ran out of time.  I should have put together the vases the night before.  I thought I was going to have more help the day of the party though.  But I definitely recommend them if you need flowers.

The Good, Bad, and Ugly



Good - Everyone showed up, 40 people.  Everyone had a good time dispite the downpour.  We ate lots, Karter loved her cake, the Slideshow went over well and gave people something to do while Karter was attempting to open her presents.

The party crowd stayed until after Karter went to bed so that I could party too.  They all helped me celebrate my one year mommyversary!  It was a great time.

Bad - It rained all day.  Totally poured.  But my mom's boyfriend and Timm set up tarps over the patio.  We also had heating lamps.  But Timm's grandma and great aunt got too cold to watch the cake smash after eating.

5 people showed up early.  a half hour early!  WTF?!  Who does that?  I wasn't ready until 1:59.  and the people who showed up early wanted to chat with me.  I just couldn't do it.

My grandma spilled a dessert all over the table.  We had to scramble to find a new tablecloth.  She was pissed.  I was cracking up.  At this point, it was raining, I had lost all hope of the cute, spring, flowery garden party I was hoping for.

Ugly - Besides the rain.  Not too much.