One Is Peachy*

Hey guys! I just want to say, I am so blessed! My daughter, Willow, turned ONE on Saturday. I'm so sad because she is growing up so fast but happy at the same time because I couldn't ask for a better baby girl! We were able to have a bunch of family and friends over for her party! Which is why I wasn't able to get a blog out last week. I was super busy with all the preparations for the party on Saturday. I'm still learning how to manage my time and be the most productive with all of life's responsibilities while minimizing my stress levels. There is always room for improvement!

Anyway, I thought I would just tell you guys what I did for her party and link the decorations I used.

I wanted to do something a little different for her first birthday so I decided to go with peaches for the party theme. There are so many cute peach party ideas on Pinterest. I spent lots of time looking and ordering little things from Amazon and Etsy a couple months in advance.

I spent more on the decorations and food than her gifts because first birthdays are mostly for the parents anyway, right? Haha! Also, it seems like kids really aren't interested in toys most of the time. (Lots of toys are my minimalist nightmare!) What I've learned is kids would rather get into cupboards and pull out Tupperware than play with the stackable rings that they usually take apart and leave everywhere for you to trip on. The biggest gift I got her was an adorable bohemian macramé baby swing. (linked here) She loves to swing! I just got it in the mail yesterday and when I pulled it out of the package she was already trying to get in it. I'm so excited to get it hung up on our covered porch!

As a side note, I'd like to give a little shout out to my bestfriend and to my family who helped make this day special for us. You guys were an incredible help. Thank you.. love you guys! Also, to a sweet cousin who took pictures for us! You're a sweetheart!

D E C O R A T I O N S

Ok, first of all my house is pretty small, as I've mentioned before, so we moved my kitchen table and put two folding tables together in an "L" shape in my diningroom to make it buffet style for the food. I got a three pack of white tablecloths from Walmart and used a small roll of brown paper from Target's $3 bin for a runner. (You know how when you put a cheap tablecloth on a table and you can see through it? Well, my friend taught me that if you have an extra one to leave it folded in half and put it on the table, then cover it with another one regularly so that it's thicker and not see through. Just a little trick.) I got baby's breath from Costco for a good price and cut ferns from my yard, put them in various sized jars with water and used them as decoration on the tables and around the house along with fresh peaches and pictures of my little one. Also, another multifunctional trick you can do is use cute drinks to decorate. We used peach, grapefruit and clementine Izzes from the Metropolitan Market. They are super cute and very yummy!

I bought a simple, inexpensive balloon garland from Amazon (linked here) that really complimented the food table and the canvas of Willow on the wall. It's easy to assemble but takes a LOT of breath! Haha! I'm kind of bummed I didn't get a very good picture of it. I cropped this from a picture someone sent me. Also, if you didn't know this, I didn't until a few days ago, but you can get the Walmart photo app on your phone, it's called Prints Plus, order pretty much anything and it will be done in an hour.. if not, close!

On the table I used in the entryway I set up a time capsule where guests could write letters for her to open when she turns eighteen. I thought it was a really cute idea. I bought and downloaded a PDF from Etsy that was peach themed, edited it and printed off as many as I thought I needed. After you buy your template, they will send you an email with a link to click on and set up a Templett account. It is user friendly. And trust me when I say user friendly because I am not tech savvy at all! (time capsule linked here)

On the same table I put a basket of peach rings as party favors. Simple and sweet!

I printed off the matching milestone poster (linked here) and the matching birthday invitations, as well. (linked here)

I also bought peach and neutral colored paper pompoms from Amazon (linked here) and we stuck them here and there and wherever needed a little extra oomph. They are tedious to pull apart though!

F O O D

When I was deciding what to do for food I wanted it to be something Willow liked and could eat. She's not picky but I definitely didn't want to do junky food or anything real heavy. She loves canned chicken so I thought that chicken salad croissants were a good idea. They were very simple and hit the spot. I bought a couple boxes of croissants from Costco, there's 12 in a box for $5.99. The croissants are pretty big so we cut them in half after the sandwiches were made and had lots leftover. Better safe than sorry, especially when it comes to food! The canned chicken was from Costco too. We added halved red seedless grapes and little chunks of celery to some of the chicken mix and left some without in case someone didn't like grapes or celery. We cut up honeydew melon, cantaloupe, pineapple and watermelon, put it all in a bowl and voila! A bowl of sweet refreshment! Willow loves watermelon! Also, Costco had some nice veggie trays. We got a couple cucumbers and a couple bags of mini red, yellow and orange bell peppers to add a little more variety. I always make Ranch dip for my veggie trays because I like it better than the bottle dressing stuff. Just a 16oz container of sourcream and a package of dry Ranch mix is all I use!

I bought a couple dark wicker bohemian tray type things from Hobby Lobby, laid wax paper down and then we arranged the sandwiches and vegetables on those. My mom insisted we make Suddenly Salad as well. It's super cheap at Walmart, really yummy and a good filler. Great idea, mom!

For dessert I did peach cobbler. Costco has a 4 pack of canned peaches for $9.99 and they are SO delicious! I like them because they are in extra light syrup. Anyway, I have an extremely easy peach cobbler recipe and we made two 9x13 glass pans. So easy for a crowd and cost effective too! Just add a scoop of vanilla icecream on top and you have yourself a mouthwatering dessert. (Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture...)

P R E S E N T S

By the time we got to presents my little one was already getting tired so I went through the presents quickly. She got lots of cute clothes and THANKFULLY not a lot of toys.. Haha! I think it might be time to go through her room, with all the clothes she got we're running out of space!

The teepee behind us was a cute little backdrop for opening presents. I some really gorgeous teepees on Pinterest and decided I wanted to make one instead of ordering one so it was a little more personal. It cost about the same price as ordering one.

S M A S H C A K E

We switched outfits and quickly moved to smash cake! She was getting sleepier by the minute. . . My sister made the smash cake. I sent her a picture of what I wanted and it turned out perfect! I ordered the cake topper from from Etsy. (linked here) We added a couple slices of a peach and a sprig of baby's breath for the final touches.

I ordered the banner on the highchair from Etsy. (linked here) It is a little spendy. I probably could have made it if I wanted to take the time but I had other things I was trying to make.

Willow didn't really go as crazy as I thought she would with eating the cake but it was cute.

I put little pieces of watermelon on her cake to get her to touch it and she just picked them off and ate them. Haha!

After we did cake, we took Willow outside to help her destroy the piñata but of course she wasn't sure what to do. I made the piñata but I didn't realize how time consuming they were and I didn't quite get it finished. If you're going to attempt making a piñata I suggest you start it at least a week and a half before you need it. I don't think I'll ever make one again. It was a fun experience though! (I didn't actually get a picture of the piñata completed) I looked up "peach piñatas" on Pinterest and it brought up this one linked here that I tried to mimic.

People had already started to leave so after we tried the piñata we started cleaning up. I also had sweet volunteers help with clean up which made it quick and easy.

Well, that about sums up Willow's first birthday party. And you know what, it's the memories that count when it comes to the first birthday. So don't feel dumb for doing a bunch of "unnecessary" things or traditions for a one year old's birthday party. And don't feel bad if you can't afford to go all out and crazy either. Just make a happy place for your little one and you surrounded by the people he or she loves. Make the best of what you have. I know Willow really wasn't interested in a lot of things that were going on at her party, infact she was a bit over-stimulated, but it was a happy place filled with people she loves.

Alright guys, I hope I didn't bore you with anything. I know it was a long blog but I hope you got some ideas for your next party. You can message me about what you would like to hear about next. I would like some feed back and I'm open for suggestions.

Until next time...

The Lacie Willow {Aurelia Harger}