Adalyn Turns One

We've been counting down the days until Adalyn's first birthday and Saturday it finally arrived.  After much planning and idea boards over at Pinterest that you can read about initial planning here, invitations here, menu thoughts here, dessert ideas here, and decoration ideas here, the day finally came together.

We had the party at a local community clubhouse which really worked out as far as space was concerned.  Our tiny house just wouldn't have held that many people for a first birthday party.  The downside is I had to make everything and then transport it and set up the day before whereas having it at our house I could have set up a week in advance and saved the cooking/baking for later.

Decorations.  I made a lot of decorations via ideas from Pinterest.  I started all of this weeks before her party because it was something simple I could accomplish and forget about until the party.

Happy Birthday Adalyn!! Banner

Party Lanterns

Monthly Photos

Cake Bunting

Highchair Ribbon

Tutu

Food.  I had a really hard time deciding on the menu.  I really wanted to do the chili/baked potato bar but Rick nixed the idea.  I have to say it would have been easier than what I decided on.  Here's what the menu looked like.

Cheese & crackers
Hot dog bar
Buffalo chicken dip
Pasta salad
Veggie Pizza

Drinks.  You can't eat without washing it all down right?  So I wanted to have something pretty simple as far as drinks went.  I originally was going to do pop however I knew if I did that we'd have a lot leftover and we don't drink pop so we'd be stuck with all of it.  Instead I found a great punch recipe from my girl Paula Deen.  It was fabulous, but be prepared it's full of sugar.  You'll notice the gray and white striped straws that go with the original color scheme, gray with pink/teal.  I found those here.

I also really wanted the hot chocolate bar.  I mean we are in the middle of winter in Ohio so it was perfect for the party.  I found the recipe here.  It was tasty!

Marshmallows, whipped cream and Bailey's to compliment.

Dessert.  The dessert bar was my favorite part.  I'm a girl who loves desserts so I knew I wanted to have a variety of options available to eat or take home.    Also, I decided to forgo the typical birthday cake and do a smash cake for Addie and cupcakes for everyone else.  The dessert bar consisted of Addie's smash cake, cupcakes, brownie bites, #1 rice krispie treats, oreo truffles, and teal/pink suckers.

Notice the gray straws - multipurpose

Gifts.  We opened some presents.  She got a variety of things, toys, clothes, Tiny Toms!!!!!  She also got a cute chair and a lady bug riding toy.

She looks like a princess in this chair

I guess she'd rather lay on the chair then open gifts.

Cake.  Then we all watched her with the cake.

We sang Happy Birthday.

She wasn't really sure of the cake.  The icing was a buttercream icing which I iced the night before so it wasn't soft and fluffy.

This is her, eww I don't think I want to touch this face.

I attempted to feed her a piece thinking if she had a taste she'd like it.  This was her avoiding me.

We gave her a spoon to play with the cake thinking she might try it once she started breaking it down.

She'd rather feed her momma :)

I finally snuck a taste to her.

At this point, she realized she likes it.

So I may as well eat it now.

She was really breaking it up and pulverized the cake.

 This is her clapping!  We say, "Yay!" and she claps.

I love this picture of her smiling.

And this is our only family picture we captured.  Please ignore my awful look.  I've been instructed to wear glasses 100% of the time and I need a tan.

It turned out to be such a wonderful day and even with a cold she hung in there and enjoyed herself so much. I can't believe how much she's changed and cannot imagine how different she'll be a year from now.