It's A Party!

Well, WAS a party that is. Who's party you ask? Why Lily's party of course. Her first birthday party in fact. We had it on Saturday which was actually 9 whole days before her actual birthday. Her actual birthday is this Monday, labor day. Funny, huh?

Please beware, this is a VERY long post.

Ok back to the party. It was GREAT! I worked very hard on preparing everything for Lily's party. I handmade all of the invitations. They were very cute. I should have taken a picture of them. I guess you will just have to trust me. Inviting people was a very hard thing. You see, I have a very large family who never RSVP so I have to plan on them being there and that puts a limit on non family members I could invite. So I tried as hard as I could to limit the guest list to family and friends with kids Lily's age. So if you are reading this and wondering why you were not invited I apologize, sincerely. I really didn't want to offend anyone by not inviting them, I was trying to make the cost of food somewhat reasonable and the party as manageable as possible for the hosts, me and my mom and when the guest list started reaching 40+ people I had to put a limit somewhere. But really, she turned 1...she's not going to know who was there or wasn't there.

For the venue, we held the party at my mom's church. They have a big huge room called the Fellowship Hall. It's just a huge room with a kitchen off to the side of it. They let members reserve the room for FREE. It was by far the perfect place. With the kitchen it made setting up all the food a breeze, it had all the tables and chairs we needed and even the high chair.

After I worked out who we were going to invite and had the invitations sent we began shopping for all the 1st birthday party essentials. I also made her a dress. I actually made 2 but the first one didn't turn out well and the second was cute but I think a store bought one would have been cuter or at least fit better. At least I can say I made her a dress. I am not sure if I will do it again though.Back of dress.

Food was simple we had veggies, cheese and crackers, and wraps.

We had a cupcake bar for dessert rather than a cake. Lily did have her own mini cake but everyone else got to make their on cupcake. I provided 3 different types of cupcakes, Golden Cream Cheese, Chocolate Cream Cheese, and Peanut Butter Surprise which was actually a peanut butter cup with a Hershey kiss inside, 4 different icings: buttercream, chocolate buttercream, mocha buttercream, and cinnamon cream cheese, and various toppings. I thought the cupcakes were delicious and I think other people did too. I received a lot of compliments on the idea so I think people liked it. But, no I didn't come up with it. I got the idea from my friend Annali.Lily wasn't too interested in her cake. She ate it when she was fed little bights and she eventually ate some cupcake but she wouldn't dig right it to her cake. I think it might have just been a little big for her.

There were a lot of people and with a lot of people come a LOT of gifts. Lily (we) were more than blessed, she was down right spoiled. Lily loves and plays with each and every toy that she received. I actually think that she must have been bored at home before her party. She received a LOT of clothes too. She now has her entire fall/winter wardrobe, other than jeans. If I wasn't a huge fan of baby jeans she wouldn't need anything, oh except socks. She may need some bigger ones if her size 2 feet ever grow.

Lily is a kisser. She loves kisses as evident here in the picture.
I hope she doesn't grow up thinking it's ok to just kiss boys when ever she pleases, otherwise Adam and I will have our hands full.

It's hard for me to say what she liked more, her new toys or the balloons. The balloons were a huge hit and not just to Lily, all the kids loved them. Almost half my pictures of Lily are of her with a balloon in hand.
There were many moments throughout the party I started tearing up because I was so happy and felt so blessed. Lily is one loved little girl. I hope her family and friends show her that love for the rest of her life.

Lily was a great girl through her whole party. She didn't get cranky or overwhelmed by all of the people at all. I was so incredibly proud of her! She LOVED having all the kids crowd around her when we were trying to open presents it was pretty much impossible for me to get her focused on trying to open the gifts. Adam was a HUGE help. He stayed home with Lily in the morning while I went to the church with my mom to set up. He got her dressed up and ready to go, then brought her to the church, then sat in the car with her to let her sleep. He was with her by her side the entire party and took GREAT care of her so I could host. My mom helped a LOT! We couldn't have had the party without my mom's help. My mother-in-law pitched in with some of the party costs and took pictures which I was grateful to not have to worry about hosting and taking pictures. It was such a fun party. My only regret is I wish I had time to talk more with our guests. I hope that our guests enjoyed themselves as much as we enjoyed having them. We are so grateful for everything she received and that so many people came to celebrate with us the first year of Lily's life. Oh my I can't believe it has been a year. Don't worry there is an upcoming post all about that subject so I won't go into it here.

Things I learned from her party for next year:
don't make such a big deal about who to invite (it caused me a lot of stress), organziation and planning are key, kids will crowd around the presents (that was a bit of a shock and space bubble invasion for me), have party favors so kids can leave with a little something too (didn't think those would be necessary for a 1 year old's bday party), but I was mistaken, balloons are a big hit and I should blow up extra for kids to play with and take home.