Ava's 1st Birthday Party

Do you know what one of the things I have always looked forward to about being a parent?  Planning birthday parties!  Seriously.  I have ideas that range from a fashion/dress up party involving a red carpet to pool parties involving jump contests and games like Marco Polo.  It's a little crazy, I know, but so much fun!

The inspiration for Ava's first birthday party started with this little outfit.  It is a light pink tutu with a matching shirt that says Ballerina.  I actually bought it second hand and scored a great deal.  Anyway, I LOVE to dance and am looking forward to putting this little dancing fool into her first ballet class.

Here are the invitations!  Storebought invitations were not going to cut it.  I am a scrapbooker that does almost every layout with some sort of dimension, and this is what I designed.  The cost to make 24 invitations: about 6 dollars, using paper ($1.50), tulle ($1.99 on sale with tons left over), rhinestones and ribbon (already in my stash), and hairspray glitter ($2.50).

Well, for the party, let me tell you what I had to start with. . .

I rented this from the senior citizen center, so I know the money went to great use serving meals to the elderly in need.  I was really happy about that, but I did have to deal with a few things that were not exactly pretty and things in general I wanted to keep toddlers away from (cleaning supplies, etc).  Check out how I fixed that:

So. . .with the light pink and white, I also added some black to the color palette of my party and here you go!   This was the table decor.  I used a roll of light pink plastic table cloth, and hot glued tulle in pleats to mimic a tutu and used silver ribbon to create a sash.  In the center, I used scrapbooking paper and some rhinestones.  Around the room, I set out ballet memorabilia (that I borrowed from a friend - thanks Alicia!), displayed some of Ava's ballet shoes and tutus along with some of my dance memorabilia.  I also made my own banner.

Her baby pictures in frames were set out at the tables.

Photography - nFocus Photography, Donna Davis Photography, and Sears.

There was a table set up of my recent scrapbooks of Ava's first year, which kept many people occupied for a while :)

Here is the food table.  My dad's specialty is pulled pork, so we served pulled pork sandwiches, potato salad, cole slaw, chips, sweet tea,  and Ballerina punch (pink lemonade).  Please notice how I creatively covered the cluttered kitchen area - with pink paper (sprayed with hairspray glitter of course).  I did the same to cover the area in the stairwell that had all of the cleaning supplies.  :)

Here is the beautiful cake.  Thanks to me, it was a pain to transport because I wanted it to be placed on this cake plate.  It was well worth the bumpy ride on the gravel driveway.  Thank you, Shannon from Gracious Cakes for the beautiful cake!

This is the candy buffet.  There is a sign that says "Sweet Treats for my sweet peeps"  I displayed the Eiffel Tower because many prima ballerinas train in France.  The desserts were Oreo truffles, Smoresicles, pink M&M's, marshmallows, and Hershey Kisses. The truffles were set out on a beautiful Southern Living at home tray (thanks Daisy!)  The rest of the candy was placed in these candy jars.  These jars are actually part of Ava's nursery decor.  They were purchased at Wal-Mart, but I painted the lids with gold and silver leafing paint and changed the knobs to pink crystal.  I thought it was a nice touch to the sweets table.  The girls were given silver hairbows.  I wanted to make pink also, but ran out of time.  The bows were given handmade black masks.  Everyone received a party favor with a picture of the birthday girl!

These are the party hats.  I did make some for the boys in black since most boys or the father of the boys would probably not like pink hats.  I liked the the party hats, but the next time I do them, I will use ribbon instead of the silver elastic.  I also want to try and make them a little oversized, like Jess from Polkadots and Pirates.

This is the birthday girl.  Her hat was a little different, using the maribou fur and pearls.  I think she looked pretty darn cute.

Except when we took the cake away!

All in all, it was a beautiful fall day to have a first birthday party.  A huge thanks to my parents, who helped with all of the details and the cooking, my friend Alicia for the ballet memorabilia, and everyone for coming to make Ava's first birthday special.  All I can say is love was in the details and I hope when she looks back, she knows how much I love her!