Brady's 1st Birthday Party!

We had Brady's 1st birthday party on Saturday.  They say that the first birthday is really for the parents, and if so, I just have to say that is was MY favorite birthday party ever!  It really was everything I had envisioned - lots of family and friends eating, drinking, and talking; kids running around in the yard playing in the sprinklers; a smash cake being totally demolished; oooohs and aaaahs over the food, decorations, and cupcakes!

Here is the cake table the night before the party:

I made the banner using some white cardstock I had leftover from making our wedding invitations!  I just printed out the letters, cut them, and then used blue ribbon from Michael's to string them together.

Here are some of the details of the decorations.  Let's start with the cupcake stand and cake topper:

For the cake stand I bought the Petite Square Cupcake Tree from http://www.cupcaketree.com/.  I decorated it by spraypainting it blue and then glueing the red and white ribbon on (spraypaint and ribbon from Michael's).

I got the cake topper from Etsy seller SpiritMama.  When it first arrived it was more of an aqua color and I wanted it to be baby blue, so I contacted SpiritMama and she was extremely gracious and offered to repaint it if I sent it back to her.  She made a quick turnaround and I had it back in a few days and it was perfect!  I love Etsy!

Next are the pinwheel displays:

The red containers are from Blumebox and they are the 8" blumebox in red burst.  I also bought some 4" white cubes from there that I decorated with argyle and put the plasticware in.

I made the pinwheels with the help of MrKLB using a combination of instructions I found here and here.  Basically I used all of the supplies listed in the first one, but didn't use the pattern to cut the paper and instead used single sheets of paper as described in the second link.  I bought 2 12x12 pieces of cardstock to make the large red and blue pinwheels and then printed the argyle on white cardstock to make the smaller ones.  I also used wooden dowels, wooden tie pegs, wooden spools, and grommets that I purchased at Michael's.  MrKLB helped me drill the holes in the wooden dowels and put the grommets in the center.  It was actually much easier than I expected it to be and I thought they really added a nice touch.

The blue tablecloths were from Publix and the white and red paper lanterns were from Asian Ideas.  (I also hung the lanterns on our deck and used them as centerpieces on the dining room table, but I don't think I have photos of that.)  Then I threw the birthday invitation into a frame we already had and used Brady's sock monkey to complete the table.

We've taken a photo of Brady with his big Mickey Mouse each month so that we can see how he has grown and changed.  I printed all 12 photos and taped them to ribbon and hung them in one of our doorways:

The cake and cupcakes were delivered by The Cake Lady herself (aka Eileen Carter) on the day of the party and they were sooo cute and delicious!  Here is the table all setup before the party:

I made this sign for the front yard:

The kids had a great time playing in the yard with Brady's new pirate ship water table and turtle sprinkler:

Brady's new wagon was also put to good use:

My beautiful niece:

Then of course we had to sing Happy Birthday and watch Brady smash his cake:

He started slow...

Then he dug in a little more...

Now he's getting the hang of it!

Everyone cheered for him and he was very proud of the mess he was making:

What did I do?

The end: total cake destruction!

As I've said, we really had the best time and I'm so thankful that we could celebrate this day with so many family and friends around us.  There were so many kids and adults running around that it was a hectic party, but we had a great time and managed to get one quick family photo, which I will cherish: