Brinleigh's Birthday Party

This past Sunday we had Brinleigh's Birthday Party at the house.  On her actual birthday, half of the close friends that we planned to invite were out of town.  And since my sister and her boyfriend were going to be visiting, we planned it for a couple weeks after.

I have spent months planning this party and spent numerous hours making the decorations and I have to say, I'm quite proud of how everything turned out.

The only decorations that I did not make myself were the balloons, plastic table cloths, and paper crepe streamers.  There were also some foil type swirly streamers that I bought online that aren't pictured.

 I used a plastic table cloth to frame the doorway in the dining room into the kitchen and then tied the corners with light pink ribbon.

 I cut the number 1 out of a cardboard box and then used the eraser end of a pencil to stick square pieces of crepe paper on with glue.

 I wanted a wreath that I could use for Brinleigh's Birthday Parties for years to come so I cut pieces of fabric into small squares and then pushed them into a straw wreath with a phillips head screwdriver.  I used a long piece of ribbon to loop through the wreath, tied the ends in a knot and it is hung by an upside down sticky hook on the inside of the door, so the ribbon goes all the way over the door.  I made the number 1 out of scrapbook paper, glue, and glitter and then hung it onto the ribbon with a small piece of balloon ribbon.

 The Happy Birthday Banner was made out of scrapbook paper using letter stencils and then I applied glitter with elmers glue.  For the paper garland I used scrapbook paper & cut out the holes using a fiskars stencil and shape cutter. Then I just used regular sewing thread, (doubled over so that I had a hook at the top to hang) & glued it with elmers glue. I used a paint brush to apply the glue so that it covered all of the string and then dried flat.

 Don't judge my lopsided cake! I'm still trying to perfect the baking and layering of cakes.  These were my 4th and 5th cakes so I have been practicing.  After my first attempt of baking the cake from scratch, I decided it wasn't worth it and stuck with boxed cake mix.  The big cake is white cake mix consisting of three layers, each a different shade of pink.  The smash cake is a three layer strawberry cake.  I did make the butter cream frosting from scratch and dyed the frosting different shades of pink on the big cake.  I left the frosting white on the smash cake.

For the pretzels, I melted white chocolate chips, added a drop or two of pink food coloring and dipped the pretzels and then laid them on cookie sheets to dry.  I used my new cake plate for the pretzels since I put the cake on a cake stand.

 The highchair banner was made from scrapbook paper.  The wicker basket is full of the party favors which are baby food jars filled with starburst jellybeans and the lids are painted pink with sparkles.  I painted the inside of a mason jar and the outside of a formula can to hold the plastic utensils.

My favorite piece that I made, out of everything, was the cake topper.  I used this in the smash cake for Brinleigh's One Year Photo's as well.  I used scrapbook paper for the pennants, used letter stickers for the Happy Birthday letters, bought some rope string from the craft store & tied it around wooden kabob sticks. I then put glue over the knot in the string & under the knot so that it was glued to the stick & couldn't slide down. I also glued the pennants to the string.  This is something I've decided I will hold onto for Brinleigh's  future birthday parties.

 

I ordered all the balloons, plastic cups and table cloths from amazon.com and bought the pink plates and napkins from a party store here in town.

We also grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and I just realized that I didn't get pictures of the balloons we had outside.  In the front yard and the backyard, we stuck pink golf tee's into the ground and had balloons tied to them so that balloons were floating around the yard.

Brinleigh's outfit was a Birthday gift from her Grandma Deana, which she opened on her actual Birthday.  A cute little carter's dress with a matching cardigan.  I added the white leggings and let her run around most of the day without the cardigan on.  That outfit was the cutest thing ever and I'm going to try and dress her in it as much as I can before the weather cools off and she grows out of it.  And Yes!  It also matched my shirt.

Thank You to everyone who sent gifts or cards or were able to be here and celebrate with us.  We had a blast celebrating Brinleigh's 1st Birthday numerous times over the last couple weeks.  She is absolutely loving all of her new toys and of course, Momma can't wait to doll her up in her new outfits.  Thank You all so much!