1.19.2015

Gracia's 1st Birthday Party

I see why once people have their first child, their blog suffers post baby. There are so many days that you want to sit and write but if you have that much free time, then you might as well be getting a nap in or dinner ready, or just woosah because your now mobile bottomless pit toddler will be up or home soon. Such has been my case-- my toddler can walk, run, climb stairs and eats like clock work. Not to mention teething and more ear infections than I was prepared for... 

Either who, a month later... lets talk about Gracia's First Birthday Party --

I think I needed at least two weeks to recover from hosting what was up posed to be a small family get together. But who am I kidding, any kind of party - I start to over think it and go wayyyyy overboard. It doesn't help that most of my vendors I am loyal to so they are very good to me. 
I decided that we would have her party at my parents house that is near me. My parents actually live in Dallas but kept our childhood home here. Its their first grandchild, so having a party at the grandparents seemed like the best thing to do. 

The theme of her party was Sophia the First. 
My child LOVES this show - when the theme music of this show starts, she goes into full drop it like its hot mode. So I knew that she would completely enjoy having a party filled with Sophia the First things. I pinned everything I could think of from Pinterest and went to work over the course of three months or so - although, leave it to me to leave everything till the last minute like I had planned on not doing. 

So here's a ton of pictures from the fun she had with a small group of friends and family- 

So lets start with my favorite part.. 

The Food: 
I had a snack table for the kiddies (and grown kiddies) - complete with snacks I know she loves at daycare (nilla cookies, cheeze its, pretzels and fruit snacks). I made some chocolate dipped oreo cookies, purchased a cotton candy machine from amazon which was a HIT and some cupcakes. 


I LOVE my go to Caterers, Class Act Catering (no this isn't a paid promo) but I do absolutely love how they take care of me even always, every single event, going above and beyond. Pause: yes I had her party catered because who has time to be in the kitchen all morning when you have to decorate and wrangle a toddler into a nap so that she is not miserable at her own party.

The menu: 
We had a great salad (and you know its great when there is absolutely no salad left when you are packing up plates. It was a salad with mixed greens, walnuts, gorgonzola cheese, dried cranberries, cucumbers and balsamic vinaigrette. We also had a blacked chicken and shrimp pasta and the same version of the pasta with no meat for my vegetarian family members. We also had chicken tenders for the kiddies  - as well as ham and turkey slider sandwiches that I made the day of. 
So this is what I meant - I ordered chicken tenders for 20 kids and look how many he sent me! I was so happy to have more than enough to go around and then some. 



The Decor: 
I made most of the decor myself with the assistance of my sister and my cousin Q. 
I had seen a picture of a Christmas tree with toys all over it for the kids for Christmas, so thats where I got the idea of doing a "Birthday Tree" which is perfect for a child who's birthday close to Christmas. When guests came with gifts, they placed them under the Birthday Tree. 


I got a poster made of my favorite pics from birth to 11 months really easily done from this company called Printstagram. Its so amazing to see how much she has grown in one year. 


I found these mini trees at the Target in the dollar spot section. My cousin made all the golden crowns and we decorated it with scrap book parts that I got from Michaels.

The Entertainment: 

I decided that I really wanted to have a photo booth - I found a really cheap but great app on iPad and found an iPad tripod and set it up for the kiddies, but the parents definitely got into it too. 


I asked the girls to dress in their favorite princess costumes or fancy clothes for the Royal Affair. 

I also had a lady come and do Balloons for the kiddies - and she was GREAT!


We even had some "Pin the Amulet on the Sophia" for prizes! No ones a loser here... and check out the cute balloon bracelets and wands the young ladies have


The Birthday Girl!

Dressed as her favorite character, she had a ball! 
Now, she wouldn't let mommy keep her tiara on her for long which through a wrench in her hair style for the day, but its all good - she still looked cute. 

and she had a Ball!... she sat at the kids table with her friends 

We had the apple TV going with this playlist of all the songs from Sophia the First episodes on loop in order to provide age appropriate entertainment while they ate. 

Then this right here is where it started taking a turn... see that finger in her ear?! I should've known something was brewing...


But we kept going - changed her clothes so that she would feel a bit more comfortable because she started coughing and getting fussy. It was time for the cake. 


She didn't understand how to blow out a candle and wanted no parts of eating cake of any kind on this day but she knew that people were singing and she started clapping and saying yay. 

(but notice her red, puffy eyes?! UGH! something was coming)


 All in all, my baby girl had a great day. 
Peep in the background all those handmade red tissue paper flowers? yup momma was busy. Anything for my baby. 


 Happy Birthday Gracia! I hope you had as much fun as you could... 
We know you won't remember so these pictures really are for you. 


 So the next day after her birthday party was her one year well visit. We found out that Gracia had a double ear infection (her fourth documented double ear infection within one year) and needed to see a specialist. She also had RSV. That was the most heartbreaking. She had to sit there with the nebulizer at the doctors office. Nothing hurts your heart more than seeing your baby screaming because they are uncomfortable. She was prescribed a pump that we had to administer every 4 hours for five days. Thankfully, it never got worse than that - we prayed over her as well. 
She is doing much better and scheduled to have tubes put in her ears later this month. 


Thanks for reading.. 
We love you Princess!






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1 comment :

  1. How adorable, you did an amazing job with the party. The food looks really good too, I see why you keep them around sounds like a keeper to me. I want a few of those chicken fingers myself, lol. Love the idea for the cotton candy machine and the photo booth, very cool.

    ReplyDelete

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