almost one.

We're about 2 weeks away from the little one's first birthday. When they say, "it goes by so fast", they're not kidding. I plan to do a highlights from the first year post eventually, but for now, let's talk about how to plan a first birthday party for your child while wondering how you even managed to keep one alive for a whole year!
First things first.
For kids, many people have a themed party, and usually it's something that they're really into. Back in February, Maddie was invited to her first birthday party for her friend, Gavin. He had a super cute Tigger party complete with party hats, and orange and black striped balloons. He's pretty cute by the way :) Maybe we'll work on setting them up at some point!!

For us, the theme came easily. She was born on the Fourth of July, so we  knew right away that we wanted to go with red, white, and blue. However, as I've been collecting things and "pinteresting" I have been trying to stay away from too much of the flag stuff since I want it to look more like a birthday party.

Next, I designed her invitations. We had a pretty big guest list with family and friends, so I only did official invitations for her grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles. Inspired by this invite, and with some help from my friend, Carolyn, this is what we came up with. I got the pack of paper from Hobby Lobby and there is enough for me to use for her scrapbook pages afterwards. The words and the "fireworks" are actually Carolyn's stamps that I borrowed.

After the invites were mailed and the e-mails were sent, we started collecting everyone's RSVPs to see about how many people were coming so we could plan for food, number of tables and chairs, etc... And now for the fun stuff! The table decorations, cake, pictures, menu, and outfit!

I felt strongly that a little girl should wear a dress for her first birthday party. My mom apparently felt the same way, since she found this pretty little dress for her to wear. It's navy blue and white striped with a little bow in the front. It's just a little big on her but it will work pretty good! And it has just the right amount of poof. In order to add some red accents, I found these perfect red flowers to make into a headband for the party too! We'll see how it turns out, but they are just the right size. Now we just have to pretend that she'll actually keep in on her head all day...

                     

You'll soon discover, that my mom is a big contributor to this party. She found these little white lanterns at IKEA a couple months ago. They should be a perfect addition to the tables for a little centerpiece. On the subject of centerpieces, Brenton and I stopped at a thrift store this weekend and I found a nice collection of cheap mason jars for flowers or candy or mints or something yet to be determined, but they were cute! I got two sizes.

                               

For tablecloths, paper plates, confetti, forks, spoons etc.. We just visited the dollar tree. It seems like all these details add up fast, so that seemed like the place to go to. Everything we got from there should be just fine, but we did get these fun red/white striped napkins (again from Mom) for the party. :)

                              

For the cake! My wonderfully talented friend Beth has kindly agreed to help me with this pinterest inspired cake + sparklers! She and her husband won't be able to make the party, but she kindly agreed to assist me the night before. We're thinking something like red/blue velvet with a cream cheese frosting! And I'm telling you right now. With Beth's help, not only will this cake look good, but it will taste good... Pressure's on Beth! :)
 As for the rest of the menu, we decided to try to make things pretty simple. I have asked a few guests to bring some side items and I'll do some kind of crock pot chicken that is TBD.

I'm still trying to figure out exactly how we'll display pictures. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that about 90% of  my picture are Madeline : / Awhile back I found this site where you can order your prints. I did place an order for the 4 x 4 squares and was really impressed with how they turned out. It's a little pricey, but I think the quality of the pictures is worth it! I'm thinking about doing something here and then looking for a fun way to display a few of them on the tables.

One other thing that I have to try to talk my husband into is some kind of fun outdoor lighting from World Market - which in my mind is a little piece of heaven on earth.

Stay tuned for pictures from the big day!