Birthday party in pictures

the fun stuff.

Okay this is what you really care about. All the drama and hoopla is overshadowed by the fact that my little guy, my baby boy turned 1!!!! And trust me, you'll want to read this one to the end :D The party planner in me LOVES this part. So many people told me they were impressed and thought it was cute.

Ok, so here are the deets. Every birthday boy needs a birthday shirt, right?
I came across this adorable shirt and thought it would be perfect for his party and fits along lovely with the theme. This was made by Teresa over at StichingABlessing and I couldn't be happier with the results! I love that his name was stitched onto the shirt and the design was perfect! She was very easy to work, answered all my millions of questions, and even helped me pick out the best fabric for the applique number 1! I can confidently say I will definitely be ordering from Teresa again.

Up next- the cake! Oh yummy... cake! As I've mentioned, my SIL has been my go to baker for years now. I mean really, she's good at what she does! We've all been trying to convince her to open a bakery of sorts- in fact I'm sure I owe her some business cards... For real, my SIL is the business:

Awesome birthday gift, right?! I couldn't have been more pleased with the way it turned out! And what's a birthday party without cupcakes! Carrot cake, peanut butter & chocolate, vanilla, and chocolate :) These were all done by my SIL too! And of course I wanted them decorated super pretty so Susan from Opal and Mae helped me out.

For decorations, I worked with Missy from LilMisscupcake to create these awesome photo tags. These were the perfect way to showcase baby's first year's photos. She also custom made baby's first holiday's photo tags for me as well. It turned out super cute and everyone enjoyed seeing his growth throughout his first year.

So if you notice from the pinspiration- I wanted to have a welcome sign of sorts. This would also serve double duty as a picture backdrop. The thing is- I ripped the stupid stand a part while trying to put it together. And as things would have it preparation and time got away from me (especially because I was on single mom duty Monday through Friday) and I never actually made a welcome sign to go along with it. But either way I thought it was cute and served it's purpose.

 And the toy box?! A wonderful gift from my brother, aka the best Uncle ever! Guests dropped off gifts in the toy box and all we had to do was close the lid and put it in the car!


I had so much fun planning the menu for this! Originally I was going to have it fully catered to the nines. I figured this would take a load off our plate and allow us to enjoy the party instead of running around like bats in the night. At the end of the day we were bats. I scaled down the catering an opted for running around like crazy people. The dessert table also carried the party theme and also turned out cute!

I wanted something fun and entertaining that all the guests could participate in no matter what the age! I thought it would be a cute way to commemorate his party to have a caricature artist.

He did a pretty good job and everyone was pleased with their drawings. I had one done for the birthday boy of course. I'm going to have it framed and hung along with the caricatures of hubby and me- I can't wait until all 3 of us get in one together :)

Then it happened. The very thing I stalked the Farmer's Almanac for... torrential downpours. we were able to pack everything and clear the backyard before everything got drenched. And the party continued indoors for a little bit... I don't think the kids cared either way- as long as they were having fun.

I can't believe it took me a full year to write this and because of it I am sure I am leaving something out. All in all I think we had a great day. I was able to get tons of pictures (right before my camera broke) to capture these precious memories for my son to relive later on. It it a lot of hard work but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat to celebrate our first year of parenthood.