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Monday, January 28, 2013

Lilly's First Birthday Party

The beauty of technology is that although I am writing this blog 2 months late (whoopsie!), I can back-date it so that it shows up around L's actual birthday for baby book purposes.  Fancy, yes?

Stephanie was nice enough to take photos for me (NC friends, if you want or need to have photos done you should check her out, she's amazing!) and there are so. many. amazing. pictures that I want to share!  The day was so, so special, and I definitely couldn't have pulled it off without the help of so many of our family members and friends.  

I think I mentioned before that my only goal for Lilly's first birthday party was to keep it small and simple, because I knew she was turning one and therefore would never remember or care what we did to celebrate.  Of course, like any other event that I have ever done in my entire life (and thanks to Pinterest), it turned out to be a little bigger and more crazy than I planned.  The important thing is that it was perfect, and I'm so excited to finally share photos!  Consider this fair warning that there are a LOT of them and as usual, I had a hard time narrowing down.  Would you believe me if I told you that I have been working on this post for 2 days?  That is because once I finally decided which million photos to post, it took a while to upload.  (Not) sorry 'bout it.  :-)  Here are a gazillion few of my favorites (if you want to see the entire gallery on Steph's site, you can check it out here - password is lilly).  

Image credits:  All of the following images (with the exception of 12, which I am absolutely positive you'll be able to pick out, ha!) are courtesy of Stephanie Aldridge Photography (thanks, bestie!).  

First thing's first, the details.  The party was held at our home, and after a minor snow storm the day actually turned out to be quite nice.  I made 2 kinds of chili (white chicken and also beef) with all the fixings, corn bread, a veggie tray, a fruit tray, and a chicken nugget tray for the kiddies.

Anyone who knows Lilly me knows that she I LOVE pink, so that was really the my only requirement for decorations.  If I have to give it a name, I guess the theme evolved into a "pretty in pink" slash "pink polka dot" theme.

Gift table.  Favors were tutus, which were hand-made by myself and my two girlfriends, Adria & Meagan (couldn't have pulled it off without these two!).  Thanks ladies!

Lilly's high chair.  Polka dots and hat by me, banner by Adria.

Dessert table.  Banners made by me.  Desserts made by me.  Tutu table skirt made with the help of Adria & Meagan.

I cannot continue this blog post without formally thanking Adria and Meagan for all of their help and hard work.  I could not have pulled this party off without them, for sure!  When I mentioned that Lilly would be wearing a tutu that I planned to make, Meagan's brain child was to make tutus as party favors.  From there, I decided that a tutu table skirt would also be super cute.  It wasn't hard, but it surely was time consuming, and I definitely could not have done it without the help of my friends.  So, thanks, ladies!  Y'all know I couldn't write this post without displaying the embarrassing photo(s).  For the viewing pleasure of my readers, here are two photos of the tutu progress:

Delirium due to crafting or too much wine?  We'll never tell...who knew that tutus also make excellent bonnets?!
Layla loves tutus, too!  NOT.

Also, thanks to Meagan for helping me make Lilly's gumdrop wreath.  I forgot to get a photo the day of the party, so a nighttime version will have to do.

I can assure you that it is very pink, not orange.  I had to special order the @$%! gum drops.  Who knew it would be so hard to find pink, especially so close to Valentines Day?!

More dessert table. 
The lower banner displays one photo from each of my "monthly photo" updates of Lilly.   The number on the sticker on her shirt represents the number of months old she was at the time the photo was taken, for months 1-12.  Thanks for the idea, Pinterest!
Invitations by Debra Hall of Olive Paper.  She is FABULOUS, y'all.  I cannot sing her praises enough.  PLEASE contact her (website or Facebook) for any (and all) of your paper needs.  I can assure you that she won't disappoint!
Because I was so OBSESSED with the invitations, here's another photo I took with my iPhone:
OBSESSED I TELL YOU.  Weird lighting due to it being an iPhone photo but seriously perfect.  Until the post office ruined them, but that's a story for another day.

After we ate, we decided to go ahead and have cake.  I made Lilly's smash cake, and everyone else had cupcakes.  

Funfetti cake with vanilla icing.  The icing took a little practice but I was pretty proud of the result!  

Cupcake flavors were funfetti or strawberry cake with vanilla icing.

I am sad to report that Lilly was not very amused by her cake.  She was a tad on the cranky side, because little did we know that she was pretty sick, and I think she got performance anxiety when the group sang happy birthday.  Either way, I love the action shots that Steph got.  I feel like she's thinking, "I'm not so sure about this, Mom!"












We did a little "re-do" of the cake eating after dinner that night, and I am proud to report that she did much better, so I guess my cake baking skills weren't the cause of her anxiety the first time around!  ;-)

Hadley was a fan!

After cake, it was time for (so. many.) presents (thank you to everyone for your generosity, we have one very spoiled rotten loved little girl!).  We have a ton of great photos from this, so it was hard to narrow, but I did the best I could!



"I get by with a little help from my friends..."
Callie and Lilly giving each other hugs



Tutu made by me.  Birthday shirt from Pickle Bean Boutique.

It's my party and I'll dance if I want to!


Cousins!  Love this shot of L and E.  Framer for L's room, for sure.

This may be my favorite picture of all time.  Seriously.  Bloomers, sweet meat, pink, tutu and leg warmers all in the same photo?!  I can't even handle it.  Bloomers courtesy of Bellabug08.  Leg warmers by BabyLegs (ordered from Amazon).  

Bestie tutu pic!  They were NOT amused.

I feel like Lilly is saying, "Haddles, you have something in your tooth.  Here, let me help"

This photo is actually from before we ate cake, but I love it.  Lilly loves her Carney, or "Car Car" as she calls her!

We also took the opportunity while Lilly was back in her tutu to try to get some photos to send with her thank you notes.  We never could get her to smile, but we still got a few good ones.

I found this chalk board on clearance at Michael's for about $1.  I painted it pink with some paint I already had, and voila!  Lilly loves to play with it even now.  If only Mommy's handwriting was nicer!


There was lots of playing with the new toys...








...and we even went outside to test out the new bubble machine from Aunt Mere & Uncle Mikey (or "Uncle Monkey," as Dan is trying to teach L!).










Because I'm not entirely sure how to categorize the rest, the following is a series of photos with some of our family members who were there to celebrate Lilly's special day as well as some photos of the three of us (Layla stayed with her boyfriend, Fender, for the day).

Grandmommy and Pawpaw

Grandma & Papa

Aunt KK and Aunt Syd





As I have mentioned countless times, Lilly's first birthday party was absolutely perfect and could not have been pulled off without the help of a small army.  Thanks again to Meagan and Adria for all of the crafting help.  Thanks to Steph for documenting this special occasion for me so that I'd have one less thing to worry about.  Thanks to my parents and sisters and Dan's parents for coming early and helping with everything from entertaining Lilly to cooking and cleaning (and for enduring my usual last-minute freakout).  Thanks to Dan for being superdad/husband of the year (as well as for enduring aforementioned last-minute freakout).  And thank you to everyone who came to celebrate such an important day in our baby girl's life.  We couldn't imagine a celebration without all of you!

Hands down one of my favorite photos that's ever been taken of Lilly and me.  A rare midday snuggle from a worn out birthday girl!

Happy first birthday, Lilly.  You are so special and SO loved.

Sarah

3 comments:

  1. Melt my heart Sarah! I loved every single detail! Mom of the year award goes to SMEB!!!!!! Xos!

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    Replies
    1. Sheils, you are the sweetest! This reminded me that Lilly never sent you a thank you card EEEEEEEEEKKK! That little hooker! We'll get on that, stat. :-)

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  2. So cute! First birthdays are so special. I remember all my kids’ first birthdays. We celebrated my elder daughter’s birthday in one of the San Francisco venues because at that time the house was under renovation. Anyways, God bless Lily and Happy birthday. She looks adorable in these pictures.

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