Betsy’s 1st Birthday Party

Thanks to everyone who helped with the party and to everyone who came to help us celebrate Betsy’s 1st birthday!

Our little girl successfully turned 1.

It was a really wonderful party.  But I can totally see the wisdom in either hiring a photographer ($$$) or having a friend on photo duty.  I got some before the party and some of cake, but I wish I’d taken more of the party itself and gotten pictures of the party guests.  But here is the best of what I was able to round up!

I started thinking about her party months back and decided to jump on the neon trend and do neon and craft paper as the theme.  But then I found this dress at Gap and those colors kind of took over, but I did work in some green and various shades of pink since the one in the dress was so hard to match.  This invitation was inspiration for the invites and while I thought I wanted the original invitation unchanged I was so pleased with what Lisa did.  It’s almost never a mistake to trust the creative types in your life.  Thanks for making time to work on it, Lisa!

Somewhere along the way washi tape came into the mix and I bought rolls upon rolls of the stuff.  I hadn’t used it before and I am now a little bit of a washi tape addict.  If you have a birthday coming up expect your gift to be wrapped in craft paper and decorated with tape.

I saw some circle garlands on Etsy and then found a tutorial to make my own.  I got paper in the colors we were using and bought some circle punches (1 inch and 1.5 inches) from Amazon.  If you can sew a straight line you can make these.  It’s so simple and I love it.  It’s been almost 2 weeks since the party and I have no plans to take it down.  Same for the tissue pom poms.  I say extend the festive feel as long as possible!  It makes a normal day feel a little more special.

We did a candy buffet and little craft paper take out boxes for party favors.  I ordered small boxes since it was a kids party and I also didn’t want to have to buy too much candy.  I definitely over bought on candy!  I was begging people to take two boxes by the end of the party.  I wish I’d gotten the bigger boxes because there is a lot of candy still harassing me from the dining room.  Curse you, pink starbursts!

At first I was set to order a bunch of candy from a candy website in just the colors that I wanted, but after seeing the total after shipping I went on the hunt for candy that might not be the exact shades but wasn’t going to cost me $11 a pound and that I wouldn’t have to pay to have shipped.  I wound up with a good variety of candy, all bought at Target, HEB and Party City, with the exception on some lavender jordan almonds that I ordered from Amazon, which I think was a great addition and I’m glad I got them.

I had some great help from the Hartman girls in making party hats.  I bought a set of striped ones and we covered them in craft paper, then decorated them with tape. I topped them off with mini pom poms.  I had them set out but forgot to offer them to people until well into the party so only a few people wore them and that was really just as things were winding down.  But they made good decorations.

 The party was at 3, so we just served crackers and cheese, veggies and fruit.

Things got a little ridiculous in the cake department. At first I was just going to make a purple ombre cake, but thought I might need some extra so I made cupcakes.  And then I made more cupcakes just to be on the safe side.  And of course we had a smash cake for Betsy.  Sugar overload.

Since washi tape was coming out of my ears I made these super simple toppers with toothpicks and tape.

She loved her birthday cake!

We opened presents after the party to avoid tears and toy stealing.  It was a good decision.

And here are more shots from the party!

The family (minus Carson who was still asleep)

Aunt Carrie and Mrs. Jean

Daniel and Aunt Claire

Mr. Lane (aka big Lane) and his candy

Aunt Sarah and Mr. Lane

Mommy and birthday girl

Kate and Carrie (who helped a ton in getting things set up, thank you.)

Papa Steve, Daddy and Betsy after changing out of her party dress

I had a really terrific time planning and making things for the party.  Most of my time is spent doing things that don’t often have immediate or visible results.  Taking care of kids.  They’re alive at the end of the day but there isn’t a final and complete product, and with kids I guess there never is.  Maybe when they leave your house, but they’re not done changing or needing you at 18, at least I wasn’t.  I still call my mom on an almost daily basis and still need my parents and their wise words from time to time.  But I guess the physical part of providing for is done.  I digress.  With parties or a home improvement project there is something to show for your work that is finished.  With this party I was able to more or less control something and make it the way I imagined.  It still didn’t turn out exactly as I’d hoped, a reminder that I am in no way in control of anything!  But it was a fun change of pace and something I really enjoyed doing.

So maybe I did too much, and maybe I spent too much time on silly things that no one noticed, and maybe in writing this I was reminded that I have control issues, and maybe it’s crazy to have gone to all the trouble for 2 hours of Betsy’s life that she won’t even remember.  But it was fun and I wouldn’t take it back.  Thanks again to everyone who came and helped!