ABC-123 and All the Colors of the Rainbow: A First Birthday Party

I go a little stir crazy without projects. In November, I had Thanksgiving to plan for. In December, of course, there was Christmas and all that goes along with it. February was the blog challenge, and March is yoga. And January? In January, I became consumed with Hushpuppy's first birthday party.

I wasn't even sure if we'd throw her a party, as first birthday parties always seemed a little silly to me. I mean, the kid has no idea what's going on, so why bother, right? But, as we neared ever closer to the milestone, I realized that Partner-in-Crime and I had been through the most exhausting, trying, relentless, surprising, miraculous year of our lives, and it was worth marking with, at minimum, some cake, a champagne toast, and the friends who got us through.

I declared that the only stipulation was that this party was going to cause me no stress. And then, I did what anyone wants to do when setting out to throw a party with no stress or expectations - I got on Pinterest. Oh, Pinterest, the maker and breaker of dreams.  If you were to see my Pinterest board for this party, and then look at the pictures from the party, you'd know that I have not a single creative bone in my body. I'm a fake, but you know what, both thanks to and in spite of Pinterest, we had a lovely, festive, and -yes - stress free party.

In hindsight, I think the keys to throwing this stress-free first birthday party were:

• I picked a simple theme - Letters and numbers with rainbow colors. So, finding and buying decorations was easy. They only have red tablecloths at KMart? Great! Red is in the rainbow! 
• Held it in our local park, so no need to get the house extra clean or worry about any rentals (we also lucked out with good weather).
• Put an end time on the invitation. We, of course, did not plan to send anyone home, but everyone knew the party ended at 5, and naturally drifted out about that time. Two hours was a perfect amount of time for Hushpuppy.
• Plenty of light refreshments, but no meal (holding the party from 3-5 meant there was no expectation of a meal).
• Hired a young friend/aspiring photographer to take photos so that we didn't have to worry about it and could be in the photos. Best money we spent, hands down.
• Accepting help. My friend L offered to come early to help set up, and I thought, "who am I to turn down help?". Her being there meant that Partner-in-Crime could hang out at home with Hushpuppy for the hour before the party, so she was nice and fresh when she arrived. L and I got an early start on the first glass of wine and had a nice hour setting up and chatting.

The only thing that caused me stress was not allowing enough lead time for ordering things. My lovely invitations got lost in the mail, so I had no time to re-order and had to email. And, I missed out on giving super cute alphabet fridge magnets as favors because they didn't arrive on time. 

We didn't have any games or anything like that, seeing as the party was about 95% adult, and 5% people who'd rather eat grass than pin the tail on the donkey, so all of my January prep work was spent on decor and menu planning. My big project (and, I'd like the mention, the one thing I did think of from my very own brain, not nabbed from Pinterest) was the photo bunting with pictures of Hushpuppy from each month of her life. It was a time consuming project, but I loved how it came out.

My food table was full-on Pinterest. 

I spent HOURS cutting those letter/number sugar cookies out by hand because the cookie cutters I ordered turned out to be tiny for cutting fondant (see the cake).
Thought they looked lovely in the glass cookie jar I found at the Salvos, and I wrapped the lid in alphabet washi tape, which also went around the forks and drink glasses.

Actually, these might have been out of my brain, too.

Rainbow cake. So very Pinterest.
In case you're ever in need of a dairy free cake recipe, this is the one I used.
And a dairy free buttercream frosting. Thanks, vegans! You make my dairy free cooking life easier.

Hushpuppy didn't really go all cake-smashy with her birthday cake. I blame baby led weaning for the lack of frosting face pictures.

Outfit was from Etsy. Natch. She wouldn't wear the adorable headband that came with it, so we skipped it. No stress.

Hushpuppy spent most of the party eating ice with her friend, trying to run away, and digging through other people's purses. She did seem to like opening her presents, though.

And, we did do a champagne toast! To our friends who supported our family this year. And to Hushpuppy. And to us!

Oh, there's that headband she wouldn't wear. Ended up on my wrist. High style.

By the end of the party, we had one tired Hushpuppy and Mama.