Carousels and Cupcakes

Well the big day has been and gone. My little miss Isla turned 1 on Thursday. We had a great day at Seaworld.

But Saturday was the main event; the Party. As I have said in an earlier post I really wanted to make it a special day, knowing full well she wouldn't remember it. It was a lot of work, but so worth it, and we had a really special day. We held the party in a park close to home. It was nice to have it away from home and we had plenty of space for the kiddies to run around.

I started out by choosing a downloadable PDF party pack from Sunshine Parties on Etsy. It was pretty easy to put our own text into the templates, then print it ourselves at home. This suited me perfectly as I am a bit particular and needed everything to match!

Here's the invite - a Pink & Peppermint colour scheme

The set also included a Banner, Cupcake Toppers, Food Labels, Thank you swing tags and more. I soon learnt it was all about preparation and formed a plan of attack: I completed all decorations and favours in the 2 weeks before, then the week of the party it was only food to prepare.

The banner which came with the package

I also made 2 fabric garlands

My very crafty husband decided he'd get into the spirit and made an incredible Carousel backdrop. We used a silhouette image, cut it out and painted it in the colours of the theme. It looked incredible! 

The backdrop!

We had also seen (thanks to my Pinterest addiction) those amazing chalkboards people get made up and again my husband says "I can do one of those". With more than a little scepticism I set him to task and he came up with this! I love how it has so many special little things unique to Isla, it looks so incredible I think I see a business opportunity...

 Isla's custom chalkboard

I also made a photo board with images from each month from the first year, and we had the obligatory paper lanterns hung around the shade cover. 

One piece of advice to anyone hosting a 1st birthday party - bring a playpen. It was a great spot to place the babies, knowing they wouldn't crawl away and eat gum nuts or mushrooms! 

Then the all important food: I did a trial cake. It was my first time using fondant and I'm glad I practised otherwise I would've been panicking in the early hours of Saturday morning trying to finish it!

I decided on a good old fashioned Number 1. I made a classic vanilla cake, and coloured half pink then flavoured it with raspberry jam to make a marble cake. I haven't seen marble cakes for years and decided it was time to bring it back! It was a big success!

The all important cake

Baking is my thing, so no party of mine is complete complete without cupcakes. They look so sweet with the toppers.

Sometimes just a little frosting is all you need

I also LOVE the look of cake pops but knew I didn't have time, so I decided on marshmallow pops. You get the same impact, but with half the effort. Plus we already had Cake AND Cupcakes, we didn't need more cake! Wilton sell lollypop sticks in packs for about $5, and cake pop stands for about $15 so I didn't have to worry about fashioning a receptacle for them.

White Choc Marshmallow Pops

We also had fruit salad, sandwiches, mini pikelet stacks, savoury quiches & mini blueberry muffins. I really wanted a range of food the children could eat. We also had a Cruskit buffet with vegemite, peanut butter and avocado cruskits (obviously I checked no one had allergies before doing the peanut butter ones). For the adults we also had a selection of dips and turkish bread. It was plenty for a morning tea, and a nice combination of sweet and savoury.

We hired mason jars and dispensers from A Day with Polly and served Iced Tea and Ginger Beer, as well as bottled water.

For party favours I made ribbon rings for the smaller kids - same concept as a ribbon wand but without the risk of babies poking themselves. Blue for boys and pink for girls, plus a bottle of bubbles. If in doubt, always a add bubbles! For the older kids I made colouring books and popped a few crayons in so they could make a start on the ride home.

We bought Isla a vintage rocking horse and restored it for her birthday, so we bought it along for the kids to enjoy on the day too. I received one for my first birthday so it was nice to continue the family tradition. We sanded it back, steam-cleaned the mane and tail (I didn't want to replace it, it has old-world charm), replaced the ears and bridle then sealed it with a furniture wax. We dubbed him George and Isla loves him! 

Finally... That outfit! I wanted the same colours as the theme and found this beautiful Jennifer Paganelli story which was just perfect. My mum made this romper for Isla, a matching bib, and a wool felt crown! A very dear friend of Isla's gave her the most perfect leather walkers from All About Heidi.

All in all it was a fantastic day, even though it was a little overwhelming for Miss Isla. Of course I got a bit teary (I knew I would!) at the outpouring of love from our friends and family for her. It has been a HUGE year. I have learnt so much about myself as a person, a wife and now a mum. I can't wait to see what's just around the corner.

xx