Truth: the idea of throwing a birthday party for a one year old kind of intimidated me. I wanted to make it nice, but not extravagant. I wanted it cute, but not pinterest crazy. I wanted it to be enjoyable for both kids and adults alike. I wanted a cute cake that wasn’t crazy expensive, but I didn’t think I had time to make it. And I wanted good food that wasn’t a huge hassle.
And while I put a lot of thought into all of those aspects, I’m happy to say–I think we pulled it off!
Let’s talk about food first. I made two things. TWO THINGS. Burger sliders and mini mac and cheese bites. Everything else was just assembly: putting things on platters, putting chips in bowls, pouring drinks into pitchers, and cutting watermelon. My mother-in-law brought veggies and a homemade dip. And I ended up getting the cake from Publix, which they did a good job with.
The only thing that gave us any difficulty was party favors. I wanted to do pink and green jellybeans, but do you have any idea how expensive jellybeans are?! For just flavored sugar! So my parents ended up grabbing some various pink and green candy for me on Friday night along with a couple of light-up bouncy balls for the kids. I knew most people wouldn’t take a party favor, but I still felt like it was the polite thing to do to have the option.
For decorations we did plastic tablecloths in pink and green, pink and green balloons, and, my favorite, a month-by-month photo garland of Evelyn of her first year with some free pink ladybug printables that my mom found. It doesn’t sound like much, but put it all together with the food and the cake (oh and a vase of flowers) and it is exactly what I was going for: festive, but not over the top. The kids played in the playroom (which is new for us and which I am loving!) while the grownups talked. We all ate for quite awhile, then opened presents, and then had cake and ice cream. I was a little worried about filling the party time since there were no “activities,” but it worked out perfectly.
We had a great time celebrating her birthday with lots of family and friends. The weather was not so ghastly that we couldn’t sit on the porch. Evelyn got some fun new toys (she was so into her presents and her reactions to opening some of them were priceless…open mouths of surprise and squeals of delight).
So with the celebration behind us, she if officially one and we are on to toddlerhood!