Baby Turns One

Well, it happened. Evelyn is a one-year-old. Her birthday was on a Tuesday  in December, and we had a party for her with our family on the Sunday before Here's how it went down.

The Decorations: I made a few garlands for her polkadot-themed party. Two were these darling baby face banners (inspiration from here). Each had twelve baby faces, and varying polkadot party hats. I disassembled one of them and sent a baby face as a thank you to each guest. I also made a dot garland that you can see above the cake spread below (I used a circle punch, then just sandwiched two circles around a string with double stick tape). You can also see the pompom #1, cut from a cardboard box and covered with dollar store poms (inspiration here). We got a bag of polkadot ballons from Zurchers, and filled them ourselves at home with a DIY helium tank, and those were the centerpieces (also on the front porch, and behind the high chair with a big #1 balloon).  Last decoration went on the high chair, just some polkadot bunting taped on with a satin ribbon trim.

 I made this tiny baby crown at the last minute (inspiration here). I just freehand cut the points, covered it with shiny paper and cut again, added the tissue trim to match the baby face garland, and a stripe of polkadot washi tape. I glued it onto a felt circle attached to a hair clip.

 Here's the front porch decor. The E is from the nursery, and I just tied the balloons to it.

 Sweets Table: Homemade funfetti cupcakes (I used the King Arther Flour Golden Vanilla Cake recipe, and added 1/2 a bottle of wafer sprinkles) frosted with White Mountain Frosting (like marshmallow cream, and dairy free!). The #1 on top of the cake is encrusted with sprinkles too. I just spread a layer of tacky glue on it and dumped the sprinkles on (inspiration here). The dotty candies (sour balls, snow caps, and jelly bellies) are from the bulk food section at Winco, and I found darling polkadot napkins at Walmart (you can't really see them in  detail in the picture).

 Party Favors: I found three varieties of the dipped animal crackers, and the sprinkles went along perfectly with the theme! The dark chocolate ones are definitely the best.

 The Food: I decided to do snack/finger foods for the party, since we wouldn't have space to seat everyone at a table, and I didn't have much time for food prep on the day of the party. I got several dips (guacamole, salsa, hummus, artichoke dip, ranch dip, cheesey queso) and things to dip (celery, carrots, cucumbers, corn chips, pita), plus a few sides (olives, clementines, grapes, crackers+cream cheese+jalapeno jelly). I also had a hot cocoa bar with candy cane stirring sticks, whipped cream, marshmallows, and chocolate chip gingerbread boys.

The Activity: We took advantage of the Christmas season and decorated graham cracker houses as an activity. It was a hit! I assembled the houses in advance, using royal icing. The cousins got to decorate their own house to take home with as much candy as they liked (which for some was a lot). I think they loved it, and we might make it a birthday tradition. The best candies were: Necco, gumdrops, Sixlets, Christmas candy corn, and licorice rope.

Here's the Birthday Girl enjoying her cake. You can see the bunting on her high chair, the other baby face garland, and the giant #1 balloon. She was seriously diggin' the cake. We had to take it away, or she would have eaten the whole thing! Next baby will probably only get a cupcake. The whole cake was a bit much.

 

 Happy Birthday Evie! Can't believe you're already one, practically a toddler. I hope you enjoyed that giant cake, and the excitement of having a party with lots of energetic cousins who simply adore you.