As you all know we celebrated Mia's first birthday yesterday. But her actual party was Sunday. The plan was to have it at our neighborhood park outside. But when Sunday rolled around, we had gotten a cold front that came with a whole lot of wind. So at the last minute {meaning 2 hours before} we changed the party to our house.
I may or may not have gone into a mini panic mode. A birthday party outside with a ton of people, versus one inside, is a different story. But we did our best to make it the way I had envisioned and it worked out just fine. We had around 35 adults and 15 kids running around in here, and it really was a blast.
So. On to the party. I have to apologize to my two other children, because this one was one of my favorites to plan. I've known for a while that I wanted to do a "you are my sunshine" theme for Mia. That song is just special to our family and a perfect theme for our Mia girl.
Everything was done the week before, which was also Thanksgiving week. So I did the shopping before Thanksgiving and the baking and making the day before the party. I don't stress these things...I'm not one to plan way ahead, I just do things as I can.
My friend Abby is super talented in all things graphic design and has an etsy shop called "Divulge with Flair." She designed me this invite for Mia that was perfect.
I love the "You are my sunshine" print from Katie Davis, so she used that as her inspiration and got pretty darn close, wouldn't you think? I love it.
Since the party was on Sunday, I made it later in the afternoon so that people had time to go grab lunch after church and not have to rush. So we did lots of sweets, which made things much easier. Typically we have food, but because of the day and time, we didn't have to. Which meant I got to focus more on the decor and desserts, which is my favorite party anyway!
I made yellow chocolate covered pretzels dipped in sprinkles
My good friend Monica is the cake pop queen. So I didn't even play this time. I totally gave her that job and she did it quite well, as always. All I did was stick them into some vases I had for presentation.
I usually order my cupcakes from Sams, but I wanted to make them this time. And I think I probably won't go back. There is just something about home made cupcakes, isn't there? And by homemade I do mean from a box. Come on now. Why mess with perfection. The funfetti cake mix and rainbow chip icing are our favorites around here and they were perfect for the theme.
I had a couple fun dollar store finds. A little yellow gumball machine,
and these popcorn bags were too cute to not get. I figured I should have something for the non sweet eaters {weirdos} and the popcorn was a hit.
We also did a Hot Chocolate Station, where we set up little cups, redi whip, and peppermint marshmallows.
Also tried a new drink ala pinterest. 2 gallons of raspberry sherbert and 2 3 liters of 7 up. Added some sliced lemon. Delicious.
Chocolate milk for the kids. Milk bottles and straws from Shop Sweet Lulu
Pretty sure this was Mia's favorite part.
The banner was my favorite. It was really pretty simple just took a little time. I can't draw block letters for the life of me, so I just chose the font I wanted in my text edit on my laptop, and blew up the size to what I wanted it to be. Then I put my sheet of paper right over my screen and traced it out. After that it was seriously as simple as gluing them to the doilie. To attach the letters and words together I glued the back to a string of twine.
I used the same paper to make a little matching pennant for her highchair and pinwheels using this tutorial.
These were at the center of the tables
For the favors, I wanted to do something different than a bag of candy that parents would have to hide/eat/throw away. So I made these chocolate covered oreos, dipped in sprinkles. Then I put two each in a bakery bag, folded over a doilie, hole punched and tied it with twine then stamped it with a "hello sunshine" stamp I found at Michaels.
I got this hoop art for Mia's room from Aly's shop Blossom and Vine. I love it so much so I had to have it out. She also sent me a print with the same phrase, that I framed and had out on the table as well.
Mia girl was lovin all the attention. The party was so special and I really had so much fun with it. I could not have pulled it off without my sidekick though. For sure. My sweet husband helped me so much. Even as far as tying twine onto favors at 11oclock the night before he was going to be preaching. He's a keeper I think.
{shirt says "Daddys little caddy}
Mia wore a t-shirt my best friend Carla made for her with some pink Rufflebutts and leggings.
Celebrating her was so much fun and meant a lot to us. We weren't just celebrating her birthday, we celebrate God's goodness. His love. His blessings.
We are happy. We are blessed. We are so, so, thankful.
Have any questions about the party that I didn't answer? Feel free to ask in the comments below and I will try to answer them there.
