Because we have a large family and a small house, we held the party at our bank's small community room. Apparently someone has given children's birthday parties a bad name in our town because this was the only community-room-type location that would even allow a party for someone under 18 years old. Even a bigger blessing, it was close to home, just the right size, and FREE!
We had to vacate the community room by 2:30 since someone else had reserved it starting at 3:00. Abby's party needed to start at noon, so we decided to serve reception food in addition to birthday cake. Thanks to a lot of help from Aunt Janet, everyone had plenty to eat. After working the crowd for a few minutes, the birthday girl started her party by snacking on some fruit. We went to the trouble of bringing Abby's high chair to the party. It was definitely worth it.
Abby wore her party hat very briefly. Jonathan tried to set the tone, but she wasn't buying it.
Ta da! The butterfly cake was supposed to be the main cake, but the center of the flower was a better space for writing a message. The flower also gave me an opportunity to work in a few cupcakes.
Abby's second birthday cake experience was a little less decadent than the first a few days earlier. Since the cupcake was only lightly iced, she actually got down to the cake and ate some of it too. She definitely likes cake but was not quite sure what to make of the whole experience.
We have video of Abby opening presents but not pictures because I was holding her and helping her with her presents. She was not particularly interested in tearing off the wrapping paper, but loved pulling on the bows and ribbons. At one point, she managed to get most of a giant curly ribbon bow crammed into her mouth while I was preoccupied. The only present she showed interest in as we were opening was a Leap Frog guitar from Uncle Michael. When we got home and temporarily unloaded her presents in the living room she was intrigued. She even crawled inside a giant gift bag to check out the contents but I couldn't get my camera in time to capture that shot.
A special thanks to all the family members who spent a couple hours of their Saturday afternoon attending our little girl's first birthday party. It was very special to us. Abby may not have understood the occasion for celebration but she LOVED all the extra attention. Here are some other party highlights and pictures of our guests.
Here Abby has just given A.J. a "kiss". A more appropriate description would be a lick.
I picked the butterfly theme after finding the most adorable 1st birthday plates at Party City. Besides cuteness, another requirement was a theme that would go with a "cut-up cake." Cut-up cakes come from a booklet published by Baker's coconut in the 1950s through 1970s. It shows you how to make cakes shaped like different animals/characters by cutting and arranging pieces of standard-sized cake layers. My grandmother still has one of the original booklets. I can remember looking through it when I was a child and thinking the cakes were so cool. Apparently I'm not alone in my nostalgia. Follow this link to see the booklet.
My brother had a little boy cut-up cake for his first birthday. My mom made me a pink elephant cut-up cake for my first birthday. The pictures of that cake and that party are so special to me now, as my mom was only alive for one of my birthdays. I wanted to make something similar but not identical for Abby. A butterfly was perfect. I ended up making the flower too because we were expecting a large crowd. I was pleased with how Abby's cakes turned out. They looked homemade, but in a cute way. I love to bake (notice I said bake, not cook), so I plan to make all of Abby's birthday cakes. That is, until she is too cool for homemade.
I was a sucker for the these invitations that allowed me to combine Abby's picture with the graphics from her party plates and napkins. I used my own digital photo and paid to download the file. Fortunately, I had enough free prints at CVS to print them out for free. They were cute, but I wasn't crazy about the quality. I'll do something different next year.
Did you notice Abby's birthday outfit? She has pretty butterfly on her pink shirt and little jeans with turned up pink cuffs. I guess you could say I'm a sucker for anything related to Abby.
1 comment:
Way to go supermom with the first bday party!!
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