Whiny Wednesday: baby L turns ONE
WOW…OMG…goodness gracious! baby L turned ONE! With an XOXO-themed pink, gold and white birthday party, to boot. I’m so not ready to turn her into “little L,” so until she starts walking let’s call it a day and keep it at baby L for now, k? 😉
I’m so, so happy with the way her pink, gold and white first birthday party turned out, I could just stare at photos all day. (And I’m so glad I took most of these photos before the horror of little C. dropping my camera onto the kitchen floor, shattering my lens. EEK. Alas, it was the inexpensive one, but MY WORD.) Before I forget, let’s start with the party invites. Click here to see the ones I chose…they fit perfectly with the theme! Love me some Tiny Prints.
For the party, I knew I wanted a really sweet dessert bar (see what I did there?), and since I don’t really own a great buffet like my sister (here’s the gender reveal party I put together using it!), I thought I’d literally just use our bar. I’m not sure why I’ve never thought about that for past parties because it worked great. I thought the Happy Birthday banner from etsy shop Glambanners was simply perfect!
Since I didn’t really want the kitchen in the background of photos, I decided to fill the space as much as I could with white, gold, light pink and hot pink polka dot balloons from Party City. I think I spent about $30 on these, but it was so worth it in the end. They really do make a party!
baby L wore the sweetest tutu from etsy shop Giggles and Wiggles…she just loved wearing it! Such a girly girl already. What’s funny is I placed D. in charge of changing her and he came out with her asking is this how this thing goes? So I think the bow was supposed to be in the back…but ya know what? I think it looks cute either way! I wanted her to wear a onesie that was simple to go with the frilliness of the tutu and this “one” long-sleeve onesie was sent from etsy shop Olive and Birdie. She’ll be able to wear this all year now!
My fav part of the entire party were the cakes because they were exactly how I had envisioned. I found a photo of this pink and white ombre heart cake on Pinterest and Kelli, owner of Sweet Love Bakes, totally ran with it. Killer. Cake. And besides being pretty, the chocolate cake/white frosting combo was melt-in-your-mouth amazing. Everyone at the party agreed, including baby L who daintily took little bites of the miniature smash cake for what seemed like a good 30 minutes. Cutest thing EVER. I topped off the big version of the cake with a gold glitter “one” complete with a hot pink pom pom from etsy shop Little Dovie. I’ve now decided everyone needs more poms poms in their life.
I found so many great accents all on my own while shopping at HomeGoods. I used a really thick piece of striped pink and gold wrapping paper as the runner on the bar, and I stumbled upon a new white cake stand and cupcake holder there as well. I found a lot of my paper goods (gold plates…pink striped cups) at Target, and I stumbled upon the most amazing gilded gold tray for the sandwiches and hot pink XOXO sign while there. Perfect!
One of the most amazing things is that Baked by Melissa actually offered to send their little cupcakes for the day, including pretty, pretty pink ones (vanilla with a Pink Bavarian Cream Stuffing) and an assortment of specialty flavors that rocked my world (but who ate the pretzel one?? I’m coming after you…)! Baked by Melissa is also amazing at cupcake art where they make designs out of cupcakes! They send you an entire set-up kit to help with the process, including gloves to handle the cupcakes, step-by-step instructions to guide you through the setup and the image printed out on letter-size paper to use for reference. In NY, they offer an Event Service for the cupcake art for an additional fee. WOW. Go online and look at it…they’re adorable and what an amazing use of cupcakes!!
I topped some of them off with the cutest gold glitter XOXO cupcake toppers from etsy shop Studio Pep. This is also where I found the “ONE” highchair banner and she even made us the cutest princess wand…squeal!! Love her shop.
Another fav part of the details for me were these homemade French macarons…and no, not by me. There is a very talented lady in town who offered to custom-make these gold XOXO strawberry macarons for me, and I literally squealed when I saw them. MaryClare Macarons is completely amazing, folks. Not only were they the most beautiful cookies, but they tasted scrumptious. (and she hand-delivered them to me!)
My mom found some sweet heart candy at Marshall’s, and I made turkey and cheese sandwiches with a heart-shaped cookie cutter (since the party was at noon, I wanted to serve a light lunch…I also made deviled eggs.)
Other details of the day included Plum Organics puffs for the babies to munch on…and XOXO napkins and cups, which served as the party favors (I stuffed them with Valentine’s and gummy vitamins for the kids and XO sugar cookies I handmade with cutters from etsy shop The Buttercup House and with regular and royal icing, which wasn’t the best attempt, but it was first time. Blush.). I found the napkins, cups, XO tea towel and cutest printed paper straws with flags for writing names on all at a local party shop called By Invitation Only. (It’s where I had my wedding announcements printed 10 years ago!)
I served bottled water in a white tin container I already owned, and this was very entertaining for baby L as was I setting up. Hey, whatever works!
There were quite a few kids at the party, so we had a cookie decorating station sponsored by Eleni’s New York. They sent us the Color Me white iced cookies and edible markets for decorating and the kids had so much fun. They have all colors, but I only set out the pink ones for decorating. 😉 Not only were they fun to decorate, but the cookies are so incredibly tasty! They’ve actually been a great snow day activity this week as we’ve been iced in…so glad we had leftover cookies.
D. and little C. went to the grocery store that morning and put together this beautiful bouquet for me that would serve as our table centerpiece. I scattered a bunch of glittery hearts in white and pink that I picked up at Michael’s.
I decorated baby L’s high chair with balloons, but I also hung a pink glitter heart banner I found at Target, along with X and O letter balloons from Northstar Balloons. They’re just 16 inches, so they’re the perfect size for parties. You insert a little straw in the end to blow them up and it’s so easy! It was the best backdrop for taking photos of her and watching her eat her cake! (she also wore the more adorable mongrammed pink crown on her head, but alas, I can’t reveal it with the name…but props to local shop Mrs Polka Dot on that!)
One of her presents from us was this chair from The Land of Nod, a fav store of ours. It’s gray and white polka dots, so matches her nursery perfectly (we used polka dots on her wall from The Land of Nod, actually!). She looks like such a big girl sitting here in her tutu and her “My First Melissas” bow flats. Can you say adorable??
After the party, she instantly gave me kisses as if to say thanks, mom! I melt.
Of course, no party girl can go the whole party without an outfit change (especially when cake is had!). Afterwards, baby L changed into the sweetest smocked dress by Feltman Brothers. This is the Rose Garden Dress in white/pink and it truly fits true to size. When I put it on her, I couldn’t stand it. The bow in the back is just gorgeous and I just know this will definitely be her Easter dress come April. There’s just something about a little girl in a smocked dress…eek!
As for me, it’s funny how the second time around us moms are so much more chill. And I’m so glad. Hello Apparel sent me this tee (I sized up one) and I paired it with DIY distressed jeans and black and white tennis shoes. No, really. I was so glad I opted for the casual look because I was running around like crazy! Party planning is so f-u-n, but it’s always fun to relax afterwards…and eat a little bit of leftover goodies. Wink.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY L!!!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!
Disclaimer: Some of the items shown and mentioned were sent to us in exchange for review. All opinions, as always, are my own.
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