Cecilia's Grrrr-riffic First Birthday!

My first born just turned one and I still can't believe it's been an entire year! In that time she has developed quite the personality and she lets me know what she does and doesn't like. And one thing that she definitely likes loves is Daniel Tiger! I like him a lot too and he isn't annoying like some other kids' shows... I'm looking at you, Caillou. Plus, the little songs about handling emotions and problems are already proving helpful in combating toddler craziness.

So in honor of her love for Daniel, Katarina, and the gang, we had a Daniel Tiger themed birthday party. I started off thinking I was just going to pop into my local Party City and buy some DT plates and whatnot. I was so wrong! There's basically nothing out there pre-made for Daniel Tiger which was such a bummer. So, enter Mommy and her Pinterest addiction to the rescue.

I started with a birthday invitation I whipped up on Photoshop Elements using images I downloaded from PBS. The polka dot pattern at the top and bottom are part of a scrapbooking set from Shabby Princess called Sweet Sprinkles. The color scheme was born from there.

I decided to make cupcakes for our guests since they're less mess and easy to hand out. Plus, Betty Crocker brought Rainbow Chip frosting back so that just had to happen. To decorate them, I whipped up some toppers by making and printing off images that I cut out with my Cuttlebug... yeah, I still have one of those, lol. I taped the fronts and backs together and hot glued them on lollipop sticks. Easy peasy!

For the goody bags, I made tags that said "Thank you for coming!" using the same method and tied them onto the bags with bakers twine. Since most of our kid friends are 3 and under, I gave them little mini board books and bubbles. I didn't want my tween niece and nephews to feel left out so I made them their own bags and gave them nail polish and water squirters, respectively.

I did manage to get an actual personalized Daniel Tiger banner from Zulily so that was pretty cool.

And PBS has some neat DIY tutorials and printables which is where the idea for the trolly came from. I forgot to put the yellow box on top and I didn't realize it until we were already setting up at the park. Oh well... no one knew but me, lol.

And, of course, I had to do the first birthday chalkboard. I already had the board and I bought the chalk markers at Wal-Mart.

For our party supplies, I hit up Hobby Lobby, Dollar Tree, and Five Below where I stocked up on green, pink, and orange plates, napkins, cutlery, table cloths, bowls, etc.

Then, there was the awesome smash cake. I thought about buying a bakery made cake but they're ridiculously expensive and it was going to be destroyed anyway so I opted to make it myself. I used Cecilia's Daniel Tiger figurines and just used some green frosting to make grass on a plain white cake with vanilla frosting. For some color, I added a few flower shaped sprinkles where I meticulously picked out the pink, orange, and white ones. The Happy Birthday banner was made in Photoshop and I just printed it off and tied it to straws.

And last but not least... my favorite thing I made. Her birthday outfit! I'm so mad at myself for not getting good pictures of her in it but I was so busy being hostess, I didn't even think to get my camera out. (Shout out to my sis-in-law for getting most of the pictures in this post!) I used the colors from Shabby Princess's scrapbook set and made a fun bubble pattern. Then I ordered custom fabrics from Spoonflower. The dress and the bloomers are made from patterns from Mama Can Do It and I just love them! I also made matching necklaces for the two of us and a little pennant banner for her high chair using the leftover scraps. During the cake smash, I took her dress off and we put a t-shirt on her with an iron-on from Hobby Lobby that read "I am 1" and it just happened to be pink and orange! On a side note, I'm planning on doing a little photo shoot of her in her dress this weekend as long as her cold clears up... the poor kid is a snotty little mess right now.

I planned on doing a simple cookout for the food and when my dad got word, he volunteered to do all of the cooking. He did an awesome job and there was a ton of food! Burgers, hot dogs, chips and dips, potato salad, beans, fruit and veggies, chili, slaw, all the fixins! It was delicious and no one left hungry! (Dad is the big guy in the blue shirt... that's my bro-in-law that he's talking to.)

So, there you go... Cecilia's first birthday! I couldn't have pulled it all off without my family and friends. They were adamant in helping with everything at the party and reminding me of how pregnant I am, lol. They're pretty awesome. Looking back on getting everything ready beforehand, it does seem like a ton of work but I really enjoy making things and if I wasn't working on this stuff, I'd be making something else during nap times anyway.

Until next time! Ugga mugga!
Kim