![\"bday22\"](\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/babyz.hottie-biscotti.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/bday22.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIt was a really wonderful party. \u00a0But I can totally see the wisdom in either hiring a photographer ($$$) or having a friend on photo duty. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0But here is the best of what I was able to round up!<\/p>\n
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. \u00a0But 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. \u00a0This invitation<\/a> was inspiration for the invites and while I thought I wanted the original invitation unchanged I was so pleased with what Lisa did. \u00a0It’s almost never a mistake to trust the creative types in your life. \u00a0Thanks for making time to work on it, Lisa!<\/p>\n Somewhere along the way washi tape came into the mix and I bought rolls upon rolls of the stuff. \u00a0I hadn’t used it before and I am now a little bit of a washi tape addict. \u00a0If you have a birthday coming up expect your gift to be wrapped in craft paper and decorated with tape.<\/p>\n I saw some circle garlands on Etsy and then found a tutorial <\/a>to make my own. \u00a0I got paper in the colors we were using and bought some circle punches (1 inch and 1.5 inches) from Amazon. \u00a0If you can sew a straight line you can make these. \u00a0It’s so simple and I love it. \u00a0It’s been almost 2 weeks since the party and I have no plans to take it down. \u00a0Same for the tissue pom poms. \u00a0I say extend the festive feel as long as possible! \u00a0It makes a normal day feel a little more special.<\/p>\n We did a candy buffet and little craft paper take out boxes<\/a> for party favors. \u00a0I ordered small boxes since it was a kids party and I also didn’t want to have to buy too much candy. \u00a0I definitely over bought on candy! \u00a0I was begging people to take two boxes by the end of the party. \u00a0I wish I’d gotten the bigger boxes because there is a lot of candy still harassing me from the dining room. \u00a0Curse you, pink starbursts!<\/p>\n 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. \u00a0I 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.<\/p>\n I had some great help from the Hartman girls in making party hats. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0But they made good decorations.<\/p>\n \u00a0The party was at 3, so we just served crackers and cheese, veggies and fruit.<\/p>\n 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. \u00a0And then I made more cupcakes just to be on the safe side. \u00a0And of course we had a smash cake for Betsy. \u00a0Sugar overload.<\/p>\n Since washi tape was coming out of my ears I made these super simple toppers with toothpicks and tape.<\/p>\n She loved her birthday cake!<\/p>\n We opened presents after the party to avoid tears and toy stealing. \u00a0It was a good decision.<\/p>\n And here are more shots from the party!<\/p>\n The family (minus Carson who was still asleep)<\/em><\/p>\n Aunt Carrie and Mrs. Jean<\/em><\/p>\n Daniel and Aunt Claire<\/em><\/p>\n Mr. Lane (aka big Lane) and his candy<\/em><\/p>\n Aunt Sarah and Mr. Lane<\/em><\/p>\n Mommy and birthday girl<\/em><\/p>\n Kate and Carrie (who helped a ton in getting things set up, thank you.)<\/em><\/p>\n Papa Steve, Daddy and Betsy after changing out of her party dress<\/em><\/p>\n I had a really terrific time planning and making things for the party. \u00a0Most of my time is spent doing things that don’t often have immediate or visible results. \u00a0Taking care of kids. \u00a0They’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. \u00a0Maybe when they leave your house, but they’re not done changing or needing you at 18, at least I wasn’t. \u00a0I still call my mom on an almost daily basis and still need my parents and their wise words from time to time. \u00a0But I guess the physical part of providing for is done. \u00a0I digress. \u00a0With parties or a home improvement project there is something to show for your work that is finished. \u00a0With this party I was able to more or less control something and make it the way I imagined. \u00a0It still didn’t turn out exactly as I’d hoped, a reminder that I am in no way in control of anything! \u00a0But it was a fun change of pace and something I really enjoyed doing.<\/p>\n 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\u00a0maybe it’s crazy to have gone to all the trouble for 2 hours of Betsy’s life that she won’t even remember. \u00a0But it was fun and I wouldn’t take it back. \u00a0Thanks again to everyone who came and helped!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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. \u00a0But I can totally see the wisdom in either hiring a photographer ($$$) or having a friend on photo duty. \u00a0I got some … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[6,11],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pWbPG-Dk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/babyz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2438"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/babyz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/babyz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/babyz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/babyz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2438"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/babyz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2487,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/babyz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2438\/revisions\/2487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/babyz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/babyz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/babyz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n