Thursday, September 1, 2011

Recap: Nia's First Birthday Party

The birthday girl
A couple weeks ago I posted a quick teaser for Nia's first birthday but wanted to follow-up with a full post so here it is!

The theme was 80s, and we held it outside in our courtyard. Usually when we have parties rain threatens so this was one of the rare days we had perfect party weather! We had about 50 guests including 8 kids and as the party neared I got a little nervous about the size after reading other moms online discuss their small, intimate 1st bday parties, but we have so many friends and family who we wanted to share this special day with so I really couldn't see cutting the list short. 






Here's a run down of the details:

Highly recommend doctoring the cupcake recipe as recommended by my friend Lisa
Food
-Hamburgers and hot dogs from BJs
-Watermelon 
-Potato chips
-Mixed bowl of 80s candy
-Red velvet and yellow cake/chocolate icing cupcakes (some with sprinkles!)
For the kids:
-Turkey and American cheese finger sandwiches
-100% juice boxes
-Fruit cups (in fruit juice!)

Our mixed bowl of candy from Economy Candy
Decor
-Balloon garland (thanks to my sister Ariane and friend Veronica for helping with this!)
-Dollar store rainbow colored hats, plates and table cloth

 I love this shot of the garland with Nia and my dad in the background!

Fun Stuff
-4ft beach ball (my poor dad tried his best to blow it up all the way, but it was SO hard!)
-Bucket of sidewalk chalk (only $1.79 from the dollar store)

Chewing on some watermelon
With our photographer friend Les
As you'll see in the pics it wasn't super overloaded with 80s (we did have some Michael Jackson playing in the background), but Nia's neon tutu was the biggest part of the theme. My very talented mom made it as well as the sash and added a "1" to the cupcake onesie I bought at Carter's on clearance for $4.

Overall, it was a bargain party and cost around $150. Not bad!

Nia's next few birthdays will be much smaller (I'm thinking just 3-5 other toddler friends plus immediate family), but for the first birthday we had to go big. Nia was such a good sport despite not wanting to do the cake smash - she really doesn't like sweets apart from fruit. The cake you see on her is from Mr. Love Bird smearing it on her; poor baby!

I'm so glad I timed the party right from 12-3p.m. because at 10 minutes to 3 she started getting the sleepy look, we bid our farewells and I took her right upstairs where she promptly fell asleep. Whew! 

I have to say it was a very fun party! Thank you to our family and friends for celebrating Nia's special day with us. 

{You can view the full gallery of photos here; our friend Les did an amazing job capturing these special moments!}



P.S. I just have to share an etiquette PSA for folks that I'd like to assume are just uninformed so I'm gonna school you: a baby/toddler's party is usually scheduled for the comfort of the child and avoids nap time so it's important to arrive before the party ends. This is shared in love =)

2 comments:

  1. It looks like a great party! Nia is just adorable!

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  2. So cute! Happy birth day to both of you. I'll have to start making the psa. Some folks don't know how serious nap time is. :)

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