Mae's First Birthday

Hooray Saturday was the day!  The day that this mommy plots from early on in her children's existence.  Yes, the famous 'First Birthday' party.    Since our little girl from day one has been referred to as Owlie due to her head that turns extremely far and her big eyes that she can make - it only seemed appropriate that that be the theme.   As it turns out - there is a HUGE market for a certain owl-themed 1st birthday set - so my inspiration began there.  

Decorations and such were all obtained or made this past week or so and the execution took place on Friday.    I made the cakes on Saturday morning - above you are looking at 3 tubs of frosting there.  The little owls were made out of crafting foam that I traced and put together with hot glue.    They made for excellent decor for the cakes.  

Across the mantle I strung her month photos - along with a photos on top of it of Mae when she was 10 days old and one that I took on her birthday in a similar pose.  The circle garland are just a lot of felt circles cut out and just sewn together.   The strands of lights have little cupcake wrappers on them as little lamp shades.    The wreath I made using a foam circle that I wrapped with yarn and then hot glued another foam owl I made along with some of the circles.    I ordered the balloon, plates, and pinata in the official line of 'Whoo's Turning 1' themed stuff.      The pull string pinata is stuffed with toys (all of non-choking hazard size)  for the 3 and under crowd to enjoy!   With everything in order the party was set - food was set out (forgot to snap that picture) and let the merriment begin with snow falling in the background!

The birthday girl was ready to party in her special outfit.   I got her shirt from BowDaciousBaby and it's darling!   Although I won't lie - I do have a complaint, they didn't preshrink the shirt before doing the applique/embroidery and so it's not totally flat now.   Hmmph.    Still darling and she looked too cute for words in it!   She had a great nap before the party and was ready to enjoy the festivities!

People began to arrive as the snow continued to fall.   Grammie had thankfully avoided any issues arriving from  her flight here that morning, so she was busy helping me get everything ready.     Ace was so excited for the snow and was itching to go outside.    He had fun throwing snowballs at the window for the party guests to watch.   

With snow hampering some guests' arrivals and the urgency for our current guests to get home - we began opening presents.  Mae got a lot of cute things.  She loved the stroller, but really thought it should be for her to sit in and not for the doll.   

A family picture was obtained (see the snow falling in the background?) before the cake festivities began -  Mae was distracted by something to her left, that was far more interesting than the camera. 

With Mae in place the cake was set in front of her to grab a picture before we lit the candle and sang happy birthday.    Well she wasn't interested in any lit candle, in fact it was the first thing she grabbed - so with the formality of it over and this picture snapped we let her have at it - while we sang Happy Birthday.   

I'm done with this.

After she had sufficiently and timidly smashed the cake to her liking we grabbed a few pictures with friends, so they could get on the road... as we had a few other guests arrive during cake festivities to say the roads were getting pretty precarious out there.   Pop Pop arrived to say he'd be sticking around a while because of it - and another friend of ours arrived having had a small fender bender and left after consuming a slice of cake and dropping off a present (he had driven close to an hour to attend too!)   Dern that snowy weather!   We also decided to skip the pinata and decided to save it for a play date when all the little ones could attend and participate.

Next up was bath time, followed by a few more presents, and little bit of time with the grandparents that were around for the festivities and then the party was over!  What fun she had!  Cake was consumed, presents were opened and she spent the remainder of the evening playing with all her new loot (along with Ace who very much enjoyed playing with all the new toys!)   Thanks to all her fans who ventured out in the snowy NW weather to attend her special day!!