It's Party Time....Excellent!

Well, June is certainly the month for birthdays for us.  Pat and Amelia share the same birthday and this year they both had milestone ones so they both needed to have a big celebration.  We had Amelia's a bit early so it wouldn't interfere with Pat's big day and other cousin's b-days as well.  

I had a lot of fun planning Amelia's party.  I just wanted to do something special yet simple for her 1st b-day (after all, who am I planning it for cause she wont remember!) though I did start planning this WAY in advance so I would have time and not feel too stressed.  As many of you know, especially with the introduction of Pinterest, mom's can go a little bit crazy with party planning and the fun stuff like dessert buffets, party hats, favors, etc. can keep going and going and going.  I had a few ideas of what I wanted to do, found some examples and went with them - and stopped googling before I got too many crazy ideas!

Butterfly treats

Amelia celebrated her big day in one of the commons areas in our condo complex.  It was PERFECT!  I scouted it out about a week prior, kind of hate to admit, I have only been in that particular area once before.  Anyway, it had a little gazabo that we could put the cake and gifts under, it was totally shaded thanks to the surrounding condos and had a big area for all the little kids to run around in.

A couple months before, I made a "One" pinata for her.  I always liked having a pinata for Pat's b-day but I figured Pat wouldn't mind passing that little tradition on to his baby girl instead.  The pinata was SUPER easy to make, found the instructions here.  Also, though pinatas aren't too expensive, it saved me a bit since it only cost me $2 in crepe paper to make!  Then, after Valentines and Easter I bought a few bags of candy to fill it with.  I also picked up some butterfly tattoos and sticky frogs to go in it too.  So, what I learned - cardboard is VERY strong but my awesome nephew Corbin to several whacks at it and it finally broke.


We had yummy cake.  I was so excited to decorate this cake and it was seriously so easy.  Easy to the point of asking why anyone would try to decorate a cake any other way!  And the frosting was YUMMY!!!!!  Usually I just make buttercream frosting but I tried out half buttercream and half cream cheese (recipe here) - so I got the yummy taste but I could still decorate easily.  Cake - done!  My mom made DELICIOUS rice krispie treats and we found butterfly shaped Little Debbie snack cakes at Easter time - score!


I put out some balls, curtesy of Waterford (really gonna miss teaching at Waterford next year), for all the kids to play with and we just sat and chatted, sang Happy Birthday and opened presents.  It was a really nice evening - so glad all my cousins, Pat's family and my family could come.  It was a treat!


Here are some other pics of our awesome family:

Check out Mormor and her stylish Sketchers!

Even Amelia had a go but she stopped to smile for the camera!