Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Andrew's Birthday Party!

Yes, I realize I'm WAY overdue on this, but life is B.U.S.Y. these days. I have really been dying to find time to put together a big post on Andrew's first birthday party. It was truly one of the best, happiest days of my life. This entire year of being a mommy has been amazing. It's been a lesson on time management and getting by with very little sleep, haha, but it's also been a constant overflow of love. I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for us.

Here are LOTS of pics from our fun bday party. The theme was Nautical, so I had a very cute first bday outfit made for him by a great local company called The Green Elephant. She did an AMAZING job on his little Ahoy! shorts and shirt. He looked so grown up!


For the party, we rented the clubhouse of the townhouse community where we live. My neighbors and friends got together the night before to help me decorate and put everything together, so a big thank you to Miranda, Nattie and Carissa for their help! We were there late into the night, but it was so fun!!! I'll walk you through the party tables and decorations, just briefly explaining where I got everything.

First, we have the main cake table! All of the paper decorations were done with a party pack from Little Prints Parties on Etsy. All I had to do was download and print! So easy and cute.  This includes the pennant banner across the top, the circles in the cupcakes and the three sailboat pics I hung above the table.


For the cupcakes, I bought lollipop sticks, printed out the circles and taped them on top. Then, I printed the cupcake holders and slipped the cupcakes inside just before the party.


Andrew's first birthday cake was so cute!! I ordered all of the cupcakes and the cake from Harris Teeter, so that part was easy-peasy and so tasty! For the cake holder, I actually just took a cereal box, placed a piece of striped scrapbook paper on the top, then used red duct tape to tape all around it. Super easy and inexpensive!


 I thought it would be nice to have a few pictures of Andrew as a baby around the room. I bought some very cheap black frames at the Dollar Tree and spraypainted them red. Then I took a white piece of paper and blue polka dot ribbon to create a mat inside that would frame the pictures.

The donuts below were a cute idea I stole from pinterest, since they look like little lifesavers! I bought a glass candle holder from the Dollar Tree and glued a white plate on top of it for a cheap and easy pedestal piece. The red rock candy came from Amazon. Oh! And if you look beside the rock candy, you can see cute paper striped straws inside mason jars that I got from Michael's.


The napkins below were another idea I got from pinterest. I found the wire basket at the Dollar Tree, which was a lucky find. Then I just folded napkins and tied peppermint lifesavers around them for a nautical touch! Unfortunately, no one really realized they were supposed to be used, lol. At the end of the party, I realized most of them had not been used :P. Oh well, they were cute!



Here is a close-up of the back of the table where I turned blue cups upside down for height, then placed mason jars filled with an earthy kind of stuff (no idea what that's called, LOL). I inserted a red, white and blue pinwheel inside for fun! The sailboat in this pic below came from Amazon and was only about $10. We plan to put it in Andrew's room as a fun reminder of his first birthday. Below the sailboat is another cereal box/duct tape creation :). 


The fruit table turned out so cute! We ordered fruit, cheese and veggie trays from Harris Teeter. George thought I was crazy for ordering so much food, but we had an amazing turnout and most of the food was gone by the end of the day!


For an easy way to add a touch of decoration, I printed these wraps from my party pack and taped them around water bottles. Easy and adds that extra touch!


Mini candy-bars wrapped with cute little wrappers from the Little Party Prints pack. Carissa and Nattie spent a lot of time and care wrapping (and eating) these the night before!


Andrew's high chair turned out super cute!


My friend Jenn did a great job with crepe paper over the fireplace! So cute!


As guests left the party, I had these thank you jars waiting for them. Leaning against the back is another Dollar Tree black frame that I spray-painted red. The jars are baby food jars from Earth's Best Organic baby food purees. I saved them for a quite a while to get this many!!! We spray-painted the caps red, filled them with red white and blue gummy bears, hot-glued ribbon across the middle, then tied thank you notes on them with twine. I think they turned out so awesome!  And the gummy bears were yummy, haha.



When guests first walked in, they were greeted by balloons and a welcome sign. For the balloons, I bought a small portable helium tank from Party City and blew up the balloons the morning of the party. For me, this was so much easier than having to buy them and carry a bunch of inflated balloons in my small car!



I have SO MANY great pics of the people at the party. Here are just a few. I was so touched by all our friends that came out to show their love for Andrew!


Andrew got to hang out with his buddies and his best friends!



And Andrew's cake experience was probably the best I've ever seen!!! He looked doubtful when I first placed it in front of him, but then he dug in and destroyed it! It was awesome. I have a very long video I need to edit, but it's great and I'll upload it soon. For now, here are some cute pics!



Finally, once presents were opened and food was eaten, we all headed out to the pool for a couple of hours. So fun!!!!! I love my friends!


A huge thank you to all my friends who helped out and who came to celebrate with us. Andrew, I know you are one loved little man!!! Happy Birthday little guy. :)

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