THE PARTY

First birthday parties are in a word...MAGICAL.  As a momma I made the decision to go all out for my Madelyns's party. I wanted to turn my back yard into a whirlwind of pinks and greens and flowers and balloons!


The Birthday Girl

 I had this vision in my head of perfection......reality had other plans....because in all of  my pre-party planning and organizing I failed to take into account one thing....I am a single mother with a one year old at home...attempting to decorate part of the inside of my house, the entire back yard and part of the front yard..not to mention putting up signs all around my subdivision to direct people to my home.....all on the morning of a 12:30 party!!! CRAZY right????  Well... guess what?  With some help from my awesome sister... I did it! Maybe not as perfect as my vision but it still turned out great!
My baby girl dressed in her handmade (by me) shirt and pink tutu celebrated her first birthday with a huge party of our friends and family.






Her cake was made by Its a Sweet Life Bakery in Buford and let me tell you..not only was it beautiful..it was delicious! Underneath that layer of fondant (which I HATE) was a vanilla bean cake with vanilla bean filling and frosting....it melted in your mouth!.

She was mesmorized by the cake. It was kind of funny because I had originally planned on using this as her cake, but the fondant was hard so she was kind of poking it and it wasnt really budging so she ended up snacking on a her favorite..strawberry cupcakes. How sweet is this picture though? Love her!








Because of the number of people we were expecting to attend the party I decided to make cupcakes to serve in lieu of cutting cake for everyone. So in addition to this yummy cake..guests got to choose from strawberry, chocolate, or vanilla cupcakes. I must say...and you all know my love for cupcakes....that they were very yummy.

 I ended up having three tables...one for food which consisted of cheeseburger sliders, BBQ sliders, pizza, chips, salsa, dips, fruit-kabobs (thank you pintrest!) with a strawberry cream cheese dippers, hot wings with various dips and sauces, veggies and dip, and my homemade bacon ranch pasta salad. It was a huge spread and everything looked great (unfortunately,  I didn't get a photo of the food table before the party :( , the cake and cupcakes were on a table inside because I was afraid it would melt in the heat...that table was precious too..of course I didn't get a photo of that either :( , then last but not least I set up a table for drinks...juice boxes for the kiddos, as well as sweet tea, pink lemonade, sodas, bottled water and  adult beverages.

So basically as far as the eye could see in my back yard was pink and green puffs, poms, and balloons. So for me I think it was a success. Madelyn seemed to really enjoy herself and got to show off her walking skills. She got some great gifts and we got to visit with some great people.

 

 

And last but not least I had to show you this picture of Madelyn pushing around the stroller (thanks Marla, Andy, and Anna) and her baby (thanks Nana and Danny) that she got for her birthday. The look on her face melts my heart. I LOVE THIS BABY GIRL!