Rock-A-Bye Bradbury: Parties

Isla has been to several of her friends birthday parties recently. This has led to her asking me if it is her birthday, every single day! Sometimes she asks multiple times. Its almost as if she is dreaming about her very own birthday party because she usually asks me as soon as she wakes up in the morning and after nap time.

Some days she doesn't even ask. She just wakes up and proclaims, "I'm ready to go to my birthday party now, mama."

I've been trying to explain to her how long she has to wait, and what month her birthday is in. It's so hard to explain time frames at this age though. If I have something exciting planned, I usually wait until day of to tell her because she will get so upset if she finds out its not happening on that very day.

Our every day birthday conversation has been going something like this...

Isla: Is it my birthday today mama?
Me: No, not yet.
Isla: Ok, my birthday is on Saturday.
Me: Your birthday is still 3 months away. It's in June.
Isla: Ok, when it's my birthday, I'm going to have an Elsa party!

Some days she says Ana party, but most days she tells me she wants an Elsa party. I've been contemplating having a (family) Elsa party for her, just because. It's hard for me to wait too! She is really into birthdays this year and parties all together.

I can't believe my little firecracker will be turning 3! The days are long, but the years are short -- so true!

My sweet girl turned one twenty days ago! I still can't believe she is one. The thought of saying 1yr, verses 7, 9 or 11 months is daunting. I just got used to not saying her age in weeks and now I'm moving away from months. They grow so fast... and thus the whole theme of her party was around growing! The invitations were filled with flowers and pictures of Isla and we carried the theme of those bright flowers throughout the party decor.

We used a lot of green, pink, orange and blue. The best thing about the party is nearly everything came from the Dollar Tree, and the things that didn't come from there came from Oriental Trading where I got a great deal on sale items.

I ordered a pack of paper and made the banner out of ribbon left over from my baby shower. Once I had my triangles cut, I hot glued them to the ribbon and placed my letters in the middle. To finish them off, I used a cute scrap paper flower with a button glued to the center.

I also used the paper on the tables to give the decor a pop and also to catch any messes from food and drink spills. It made for a much easier clean-up.

I cut even smaller triangles and used them on the gift table to spread around like confetti and used the paper to make a custom sign made from stickers I also found at the dollar store. I paired the sign with some cute shoes of Isla's that matched the party theme.

Since the theme was around "growing" I used some left over flower cup cake holders and made some flower toppers using a green tooth pick, green foam paper and colored foam paper for the actual flower portion. For the flower, I traced Isla's hand print. I hot glued the flower/hand print and a green leaf to the tooth pick. I also used the foam paper to make a large number 1 for the top center piece.

Since I knew Isla would not remember this day, I took lots of pictures and also made a Shutterfly photo book for guests to sign. I left the first two pages of the book blank with the words "Isla's First Birthday Wishes" and then asked all of our family members to sign their messages and birthday wishes for Isla. I'm looking forward to giving that to her some day, especially since her Great Great Grandma Saft came who is 103! So amazing and blessed to have so many generations under one roof.

I took Isla's picture in the same frame that we used in the photo booth at our wedding every month in the exact same outfit to show how much she is growing and changing month over month. It was astonishing to see the difference from 1 month to 11 months. I then displayed the pics in the frame using ribbon and clothes pins for the party. I love seeing all her expressions and smiling face month over month.

We used pictures to decorate a lot for this party. I lined the buffet table with my favorite prints and had my husband create a collage in the shape of a 1 on our dining room mirror. Nearly all the things I did were inexpensive ideas using things I already had at home.

The other big DIY project I did for pennies was making a 1 out of card board and tissue paper. I used tissue paper I had left over from my own baby shower and a card board box. I broke the card board down using a razor and then cut it in the shape of a 1. I then took tissue paper and folded it back and forth making creases throughout, bound it tightly with a wire and hot glued it to the cardboard. Once it was secured on the card board, I separated the tissue paper and made it poof out. I loved the end result and we actually ended up using it as a photo prop for her 1 year pictures.

I made several signs using pixlr, a free service online. One of my favorites is in her nursery now and it calls out all the cute nick names we have for her.

My friend Kristen also made this amazing sign that has all of her favorite things and measurements at 1 year old. This is a definite keeper along with her profile pictures made from paper.