Claire's Birthday Part 1: Party Decorations & Details

Planning Claire's first birthday was soooo much fun!  For some reason I just like do do a BIG party for the first birthday.  I think it's because so much happens in that first year and they just grow so fast.  We won't do this much every year, but it sure was fun this year!  I discovered Pinterest last summer and ever since then,  I have been pinning ideas here and there.  I knew with a January Birthday that I would need to have all my ideas ready to go so that I could get to work on planning and making things after Christmas.  

We ordered our invitations from photo affections and we even scored a big discount on them since I ordered during their last minute Christmas discount time!  woo-hoo!

The theme was pink and white which worked great because it goes along with her nursery and we were able to pull things from her room to decorate the party.  We hung her sheer ruffled curtains as a backdrop for the table.  I bought stencils at Hobby Lobby and made her Happy Birthday banner using scrapbook paper, card stock and ribbon.  It was time consuming to cut all the letters, but since I bought things on sale 50% off and used a 40% off coupon on the stencils, it was worth the effort!

We served pink and white yogurt covered raisins, strawberry whoppers, pink cotton candy, pink and white chocolate covered pretzels (same kind I made when I was in labor with her!), pink lemonade, pasta salad, chicken salad sandwiches, queso, fruit, veggies and a platter of chick-fil-a nuggets.  I made the pink lemonade bottles from this tutorial.  They were pretty easy to make and so much fun to drink out of too.

My parents brought the antique family highchair that my great-grandfather built for Claire to eat her cupcake in!  Guests were welcomed at the door with a burlap wreath I made a while back (thank you Pinteresst) and a cupcake Welcome sign I found at Kroger in their Valentine's department that I thought would match the party perfectly!  I also made a few "toddler busy bags" for the older kids in case they needed some extra activities.

We hung her monthly pictures on our mantle along with the outfit she wore home after she was born on the left, and her little tiny Valentine's Day onesie from last year on the right.  (it has a heart on it, but you can't tell in the picture)  We took the "C" from her room as well as the hand painted "Child of God" canvas, which added pink and white color to the mantle and took no time at all.

Claire was such a good girl!  Here she is having her snack before the party begins as we were finishing all the last minute details and food prep!  I must say thank you here to my family!  We all pulled together making things and prepping food to get it to all come together!  It was so much fun!  

We decorated using Claire's framed birth announcement, the ONE I mod-podged for her one year photos and her framed birthday invitation.  To make our living room more kid/party friendly we removed the coffee table and arranged the toys throughout the room so the parents could visit while the kids played.  It seemed to work great!

With a cold front blowing through right before the party, it was a last minute decision to open up the garage as a place for guests to hang out that would keep them out of the wind and give the kids an area to play.  We put out snacks and juice boxes for the kids, some bubbles, a slide and a picnic table to eat at.  Kevin brought out the iPod to play some music and a space heater to keep people warm!   My mother in law and I made the balloon garland the night before the party!  It added lots of festive fun and made the garage feel much more inviting.  

The cupcakes came out sooo pretty!  I got them from our grocery store, Market Street.  For $6.99/dozen they were a great price and tasted delicious too!  I made the cupcake toppers using a paper punch and toothpicks.  The framed letter C came from Claire's room and Kevin and I found the birthday hat for her when we were on my birthday dinner date back in December!  My mom gave me the cupcake stand from Crate & Barrel for Christmas last year and I am sure we will be getting lots of use out of it!  I love it!

To keep everyone warm we had a hot chocolate bar!  I was able to find several different flavors of marshmallows and we also put out cinnamon sticks, chocolate sprinkles, crushed peppermint, chocolate syrup and of course, whipped topping!  We used our crock pot to make the hot chocolate using the Nesquik powder and milk.

For favors, keeping with our theme of hot cocoa - I made individual jars of hot cocoa using clean glass baby food jars!  They were super easy to make and fun to put out for guests to fill up a bag with when they left.  I used goo-gone to remove the labels, cleaned the jars in my dishwasher and spray pained the lids!  I can't believe how cute they came out considering they would have just been recycled and didn't cost us a penny (since we buy these for Claire anyway!)  I printed little labels that said, "Claire's Cocoa - Mix with one cup hot milk and enjoy" and tied them to each jar with pink yarn.  I found the hats at the dollar section of Target a few months ago and thought they would be perfect for a January birthday!  Little did we know the temperature would drop 20 degrees on the day of her party- so they came in handy!

That's all for today!  I just love planning parties and this has been a blast!  Next post we'll share party pics of all the fun!  

*Photo Credit & Thank You's*

A BIG thank you to my friend Sara from our Lensbaby playgroup who took pictures for us at the party!  She did an amazing job and I am soooo grateful to her for capturing these memories for us!  Another photo credit shout out to my Dad for also taking some awesome photos and sharing them with me so we can remember all the big moments and little details of this special day!