How to Throw A One Year Old's Birthday Party

Step 1:

Get on Etsy, and order cute things.  *But not too many!*

 High Chair Banner from Any Good Ideas

 Banner from Bekah Jennings

Shirt, bib, hat set by Little One Boutique

Step two:

Make plenty of cupcakes:

{Mostly} Sugar Free Carrot Cake Cupcakes 

(For the Birthday Boy.)

Oreo Cupcakes 

(Um, yes please.  These were divine.)

Chocolate Cream Filled Vanilla Bean Cupcakes  

(Have YOU ever cooked with vanilla bean paste?  You'll never be the same again!)

Blueberry White Chocolate Cupcakes

(These were my absolute favorite.)

Step three:

Plan a menu.  

Since Toph's birthday is the day before the first day of spring, I went with:

Fresh fruit

Crudites

Broccoli and Cauliflower Salad (made by my mama)

Deviled Eggs (made by my mama)

Chicken salad finger sandwiches on rye

Beverages:

Cranberry Punch (recipe given by Lisa)

Coffee Punch

Milk

Apple Juice

Water

Step four:

Decorate!

 Cupcake/crudite table (not pictured: the salad, sandwiches and eggs)

 (Many thanks to Ashley for the exquisite napkin placement.)

Beverage bar.

Step five:

Activities!

We had a photo booth:

 While testing the lighting, take lots of self portraits.  

We got posed photos of all our guests to send as thank-you cards!

Don't worry if the guest of honor wants to quit taking pictures and mingle; it's his party!

We also played "Toph Trivia" and the top three scorers received:

No, not the white boxes; those are the party favors!

See the three frames to the left?  I hand painted and decorated each to use as doorprizes, as well as selected extra cute pictures of the boy.

And, we played yard games:

Not pictured:

All the dads in the group playing a rousing game of ladder ball.  

Step six:

Improvise!

We didn't have a table to sit gifts on, so we wrapped our deep freeze.

Count on us to keep it klassy!

Step seven:

Thank everyone profusely for coming, and let the little guy chill out with his new water table after company leaves:

One last thing:

Shower him with kisses and squeeze him extra tight; he'll only be ONE one year...and you've learned how fast it goes...

Kisses from Gigi

Kisses from mama.

Let Them Eat (Couture?) (Short?) Cake!

We're in full on party planning mode around here and I am in need of opinions as far as the "cake" goes at Toph's party.

Originally, I thought I had my mind made up on the cake issue, then I saw a picture that caught my eye.  First, let me explain my original idea.

Instead of an ordinary cake on Toph's birthday, I was going to create a shortcake bar.  Matt's Grandma Funk gave me the idea because she loves strawberry shortcake.  I was going to buy several of those mini-shortcakes, make three different fruit compotes (strawberry, blueberry and peach) and make some homemade whipped cream (no Cool Whip, thank you very much).  Then, guests could create their own mini-shortcake.

That was until I saw a picture of an assortment of delicious looking cupcakes.  Not just your average HEB bakery cupcakes, these babies were from Cupcake Couture; specializing in delicious flavors and beautiful presentation.  I would buy a few dozen different flavored cupcakes and guests would choose the kind they'd like.  I have a really cool little tiered serving tree that I would use to present them.

All along, I've planned for Toph to have an organic carrot cake cupcake with cream cheese frosting as his birthday cake.  I am going to make it because I'd like to control the amount of processed sugar he takes in.  I got to thinking it might be weird if he's the only one with a cupcake at the party and everyone else has shortcake...but then I realized he's one, not twenty one, and really won't know the difference.

I call on you, faithful readers (all four of you), to give me your opinion and answer the poll.

What would you rather have, shortcake bar or Cupcake Couture? (And pretend you're all invited to the party...)

We're Alright!

I haven't posted in awhile; but don't worry, we're doing good!  We have been chasing our almost 10-month old (10 months, can you believe it?).  I am starting to plan for a birthday party.  Have you ever planned for a one year old's birthday party?  It's mindboggling the minutia that is involved in this party.  Thank goodness for etsy.com!  No matter what little idea comes into my head; I am able to search for it in etsy and always come out with something.  So, that's good.

Toph is doing great; he's almost walking but knows he is much faster at crawling, so that is what he tends to revert to when he really wants to get somewhere.  He is always trying to get somewhere.

He is eating like a horse; sleeping very well and continues to be so happy.  He has bronchiolitis right now and an ear infection (where you at tubes??) but we never would have known because his mood never changed.  A couple of days ago it looked like his ear was having diarrhea (sorry, that's the best way to put it!). The bronchiolitis is a little alarming because he has to take breathing treatments every four hours and can cause asthma if not treated properly.  Hopefully this will be behind us soon!



Matt's spitting image!