The Birthday Party

The birthday party was a success. Exhausting. A bit more time consuming than I had planned on - but a success nonetheless. We invited only family to this shin-dig as it is a first birthday for crying out loud. She will never remember it and frankly, getting a one year old to sit through a party without falling apart is a feat in itself.

Anyway, I wish I could share a better picture of the birthday invitation but my scanner is on the blitz. (There is always something down around here.) This is the best I could do....

It is pink and green which became the "theme" of the party as evidenced by the photos of the birthday decorations below.

The decorations were darling (if I do say so myself)...

I wish I could claim that I slaved away making them...but I didn't. I did, however, slave away over the computer, scouring the internet for just the right birthday decor. Can I just say that Etsy is probably the best internet website second only to eBay?

No birthday party decor is complete without a Happy Birthday Banner...

And who could resist a year-of-photos? This was also done for me by a gal on Etsy. She is actually using the one she made for Grace as the "model" on her website. Yay!

Don't forget the ever important goody bag!!

The house was sufficiently "dressed" for the occassion....now for the birthday girl!

A pink tutu and I'm not sure if you can see it but on her shirt is cupcake with one candle on it! The cupcake frosting is fluffy just like her tutu!

The party started at 4 pm with dinner to begin at 5 pm. "Happy Hour" consisted of yummy snacks that my fabulous sister and loving husband whipped together. (Molly and Court were instrumental in making the party a success. A huge thanks to both of them!) While the adults ate, drank and made merry, the kids provided the live entertainment.

Grace and her cousins

(once removed if we are getting techincal)

Clara and Emily

Grace received a much needed lesson in sharing from Clara

and got buried in toys by Katelynne.

SO funny!

And finally, the moment we were all waiting for - THE CAKE! (The cake is a story unto itself but I don't have the time or the energy (tis the season) to explain it in full details. I will leave it at this. I made THREE smash cakes in ONE day before getting the final result shown below. Enough said.

PRICELESS!