The Crazy First-Time Mom's Guide to First Birthday Party Planning

Having just experienced the excitement and build up leading to my daughter's first birthday, I thought I would share my experience.

At first when I began thinking about my first-born daughter's upcoming birthday, about two months prior to the big day, I thought that I would try and keep it really simple.  I'd heard the stories of exhausted babies throwing fits or falling asleep before their cake came out and I decided to avoid that scenario by doing 'cupcakes at the park'.  This way I thought it would be very simple with very little preparation or clean up so we could all enjoy the day. 

About two weeks later, I began worrying that maybe cupcakes at the park wasn't quite good enough for my first baby!  I mean, this is an important milestone after all and there will be pictures that reflect how much effort I did or did not put into the affair, so not wanting to scar my child for lack of implied effort, I decided to try and make it at least a bit special.  It helped that a catalogue from Party Express, a cheap mass-produced party supply company, arrived.  There was actually a very cute pink and brown owl pinata for babies, so I decided on this as the theme for the party and proceeded to order the pinata as well as some balloons etc. 

So now that I had a theme I was committed.  I decided paper invites sent via snail mail were an absolute must, as they really are so much nicer (and more rare) than e-vites!  So I ordered a digital invite on Etsy.com and printed them up at my local Kinko's.  I mailed these about six weeks prior to the day to give everyone plenty of time to save the date.

Next came favor bags!  I purchased paper bags, tissue paper and goodies (old-fashioned candy, small polka-dot rubber ducks, kaleidescopes, etc.) from Party City and then printed the round labels and stamped them with an owl.

The day before the party I spent several hours making owl cupcakes.  I would love to take credit for the creativity involved in putting together the adorable owls, but alas I got the idea from a book called 'Hello Cupcake'.  Very cute indeed and the centerpiece of the food table (see below). 

Other food included various tea sandwiches (chicken salad, cucumber and cream cheese, and my childhood favorite, pimento cheese) and fruit cups. In keeping with the pink and brown color theme I offered pink lemonade as well as Pimm's lemonade, a tranditional british summer drink that is super yummy (and also slightly alcoholic!). 

 The owl pinata took center stage on the 'gift table'.  This is at the very beginning of the party.  The gifts certainly piled up from all of our generous friends!  I think Lily's toys actually doubled that day!

 I couldn't imagine dressing Lily in just any old outfit for her special day so I ordered a custom-monnogrammed onesie and matching bloomers from Etsy.com  The onesie also had an owl in keeping with theme.  These paired well with a tutu that my Aunt Ardy sent her when she was born.  Seriously, she had to wear a tutu even though my husband was at first opposed to the idea.  Here she is with the 'ball pit' I put together for the party ($10 inflatable swimming pool plus 3 $10 bags of 100 balls from Walmart).  Doesn't she look fab?!

And seriously, how about that monnogrammed butt?!! 

Here I am with the birthday girl and my husband.  It was quite a day and everything went really well!  Aren't we looking very pleased with ourselves? :)

And finally, here's a group shot of everyone that came out to celebrate.  Well, many who came out to celebrate, as we couldn't quite corral everyone at once!!  My husband had almost demanded that I use my powers of persuasion to get everyone together for this shot and, at the time, I didn't see the value, but now I LOVE that we got this group shot!  So well done, hon!!

So that's it in a nutshell.  Three days of preparation for a 2-hour party, but hey, at least she'll have pictures that prove we actually do love her enough to make an effort for her.  Love ya, Lily!  See, now you have proof for all those future instances where I'm sure you'll question this fact! :)