Sunday, April 22, 2012

Grace's First Birthday Party!

Grace's first birthday party was a simple yet beautiful event. We held it at a local park, since our apartment is too tiny to comfortably hold more than 10 people or so.


I did a yellow and pink theme, with splashes of red, but had a hard time finding supplies in the light pink and yellow that I was looking for- party supplies are hard to come by here. It ended up looking a little more circus themed than I wanted, but I was determined to not compare this party with the magazine worthy ones I see online.

I made shirley temple cupcakes with a cherry buttercream frosting and displayed them on a homemade cake stand (gift boxes spray painted and decorated with a felt bunting.)

On the front of the table I had her month by month photo banner hung and our menu consisted of pulled barbque chicken sandwiches, fruit salad, potato salad, fresh veggies, pink rice krispy treats, and glass bottles of coke.

The day was really windy, which made it difficult to keep the table cloths, banner, and bunting all in place, not to mention my hair. But the wind took the edge off of the desert heat and everyone enjoyed themselves!

Our birthday present to Grace was an inflatable pool, so we brought it out to the park and put a couple of inches of water in it to use as a splash pool. The kids were allowed to reach in and play, but not get in, since it was too windy and cold! Another activity we had was a bean bag toss set. I used 10 formula cans, spray painted them in and out yellow or red, then used duct tape around the edge since it was a bit sharp. I had been hand sewing a set of bean bags but it was taking forever. My friend, A, offered to sew and fill them for me, and the whole set looks amazing!


Grace's smash cake was a success! She looked at it hesitantly for a moment, then dug right in! She ae only a fifth of the cake and then was in sugar overload!

The whole day was a success and we had a good time celebrating Grace's first year with us! The sun set and we headed home before Grace got to open her gifts, but our friends came to our house and opened them with us- Grace got some wonderful gifts from friends and family!

I'm not sure if I would do a park birthday party again, as it was alot of work loading, transporting, unloading, and setting all of that food and decorations up! our hope is that our next home will have a little more space for entertaining, both inside and out!



6 comments:

Lyndsey said...

Happy Birthday, Grace! I don't know what shirley temple cupcakes are, but they sound so good! I'm glad her first birthday party was such a success!

Jessica said...

How fun! Love the cupcakes and the colors! Happy late Birthday to Grace :-)

Cara said...

Oh my goodness. Is that celery I see? Can you get celery in your part of the world?! :) Grace's party looks very special and I'm glad she liked her smash cake!

Lauren said...

love all the pictures! so sweet! I can't believe she's already a year old!

Tami said...

It looks like Grace had the perfect day! Her little outfit was so cute and I love your DIY cake stand and bean bag toss!

Callie said...

Oh, it looks like it was a fun party! She is such a cutie. :-)