First Birthday Fun & The Little Details

Our girl's first birthday is over and we were able to have a fun little celebration with family about a week ago. We kept things simple: food, decor, etc.; and aside from the regular meltdown that a child the age of 1 can have, it was a nice little celebration of her life! 

We had the party at my parents house over lunch. On the menu was punch, sandwiches, veggies & fruit, and some guacamole & nachos. Decorations were just had a few homemade things that I put together, and they really took very little time to make. There wasn't a theme, just girly I suppose, with pink and minty colours (surprised?); and unintentionally now that I look back: banners. 

I shared a couple weeks ago this banner that I made. It looked really cute draped in the window. 

My mom helped me out by making the cake. Her chocolate cake recipe is delish! After throwing a few sprinkles on top I added a little washi tape banner I made. It's really easy and the steps I followed can be found in this post. Really, all you do is wrap some of your favourite washi tape around some string/twine and stick it together. Next, cut a straight line to get a nice rectangle; and then cut your little triangle on the ends to shape the banner. Once I was done I tied the ends to a couple of paper straws & then stuck it in the cake. I quite like how it turned out. 

One other easy decoration I put together was a month by month of her first year. I used pretty paper from the craft store and simply attached (via glue dots) a photo from each month. Since the paper already had holes, I weaved twine that I had throughout to make 4 mini banners. Then with some washi tape I attached them to the wall. I really loved seeing photos of our girl from each month all together. It was so nice to see how much she's grown! 

Here's the birthday girl eating her lunch. As you can see, I used the scraps from the bigger banner I made and put a little one together for her high chair. I thought it needed a little something for her special day! 

In a world of Pinterest, blogs, etc., it can be really easy to get carried away with birthday parties (and this is only our first one!). I'm not saying that big parties aren't great but, with all of the sources we have at hand, it can be really easy to get into the mindset that everything has to be big and elaborate. Because, well, that's what everyone else is doing. If you're getting ready to throw a birthday party for your child my advice, because I had to do it myself, would be to take a step back. I asked myself these questions: 1. What is do-able/realistic with the time that I currently have? 2. How can I keep it simple/budget friendly, all while making it special and memorable?

It was so fun celebrating our girl! I'm so thankful for her life and the joy that she brings. I'm looking forward to another year with her and watching her grow!

How do you do birthday parties for your kids? What's your advice for keeping things simple?