Belle's Birthday Bash

Saturday was the BIG day! Annabelle's first birthday party! Here are what the invites looked like:

We'd planned to set up the food, cake, and candy bar on our sunroom... it's a bricked in room that steps down from our living room. It also has 3 sets of glass doors (that one day I have big plans for...I want to replace all of them with french doors) (The doors lead out to an area that would be the most perfect spot for a swimming pool. But that's many, many years down the road) Anyway, in the area outside the sunroom, we'd planned to keep the doors open, string lights above the tables and set up the eating tables outside.... however, the weather didn't cooperate, so plan B was to have the eating tables set up in the garage....it wasn't what we'd planned, but it worked!)


We made giant pieces of candy out of paper lanterns and cellophane wrap and hung them at different heights from the ceiling over the cake, candy buffet table, and food table. Over the three sets of glass doors in the sunroom, we made faux awnings to give it the look of an old fashioned candy shop. I used cheap white sheets for the fabric and just added the pink pom pom trim...

Initially I'd wanted to use a really cute striped or polka dotted fabric for the awnings, but fabric is expensive! Especially as much as we'd need to do that project! I did use real fabric for the runners on the eating tables...I added big ric-rac or pom-pom trim to each end of the runners and then did a lollipop bouquet out of the fondant lollipops that I'd made for the cake....I only used a couple on the cake, so decided to use the rest for table centerpieces...You can see all of that in these next pics...

When we talked about food, I wanted to do something that would be good in cool weather. We decided on a baked potato bar with all the fixings, chili and potato soup, and we threw some hotdogs on the grill for the kids.

I'd bought a couple CandyLand games mainly for decoration, but also for the bigger kids to sit and play, if they wanted, but these two were the only ones who wanted to "play"!

The other kids had a good time just running in the yard and chasing each other!

After we'd eaten it was cake time! We sang Happy Birthday, and Annabelle was so sweet! She just smiled and would act shy and lay her head on my shoulder. She loved all of the attention for sure. She's definitely the baby who thinks that everyone is always talking right to her, so she was living a dream having a party where everyone really was singing just to her! After that, it was cake time!I'd planned to use the top tier of AB's cake for her smash cake, but couldn't get it off the middle layer, so I just cut her a piece. She was so cute with it. She took tiny little girly bites and was careful not to get too dirty!

So precious...

After she enjoyed some sugary sweetness, it was present time! Our family and friends were beyond generous and everything she got was just great. She got the sweetest clothes, cutest toys and even some cash for her savings account! She didn't need a thing, and it would have been fine if no one brought anything, we just wanted everyone here to celebrate her first year with us! I am just blown away with our family and friends, and how they love us. So many of them had so much going on that day, and still made the time to come to her party. That meant so much to Devin and I. We know what a busy time of year it is, and we were so glad that so many of those invited were able to come. And we completely understand why everyone else wasn't able to be here...We are so blessed to have lots of wonderful people in our lives. I am so thankful that Annabelle does, too!

She loved opening presents, but couldn't understand why Momma would show her something and then not open it and let her play with it right then!

After presents, we thanked everyone for coming and the kids made their way through the candy buffet for their take home bag of sugar! Ha. I am sure the mommas were hating us that night!

At the end of the night, after everyone had gone home and Annabelle was bathed and in bed, I stood at our kitchen sink and while I was washing some of the dishes from the party, I began to reflect on the day. I thanked God for blessing my life with our daughter and for blessing our lives with so many wonderful people. There are so many times when His blessings just overwhelm me. I asked forgiveness for being "Birthday party-zilla" (I then had to ask DW to forgive me, and call my mom, too!) Ha...I laugh when people tell me that I "did a good job"--- because nothing I ever do is on my own. I have help like nobody else I know. If anything I ever have something to do with, actually turns out good, it's not because of me....I have a husband, parents, and in-laws who'd do whatever it takes to make sure whatever I've dreamed up happens... they're the ones who make frames for faux awnings out of PVC pipe, the ones who stay up until midnight to help me finish a project, the ones who load all of the stuff in our garage on the cow trailer and park it under the barn for the weekend, who make last minute runs to the grocery store the day of the party, who move tables in the rain, who make mid-week Sam's runs, who blow up balloons, who stay behind at our house and straighten up while we're not even there, the ones who tie ribbons, who help me hide stuff in drawers and closets, who keep my baby, who wash my dishes, and who love me like nobody else. I'm certainly blessed when it comes to the husband, parents, and in-law department, and I am beyond thankful that Annabelle has all of them to love her, too. (And I'm not just saying it because Christmas is coming! Ha...)

I know that our "SWEET" girl won't remember one thing about her first birthday party. And that's just fine, because I won't forget any of it.

~amw~