First of Many

We are first time parents and our baby is turning one. There's been so much excitement; much like our little one the party planning keeps growing. Apart from our wedding I don't remember ever adding so many little 'extras' to a party. I wanted to share some of our experiences with other parents, feel free to comment if you any ideas what we can do next birthday.

Initially we thought to have a simple party, why make a huge deal right? As we got closer to the birthday I started thinking she's grown and learned so much in such a short time, it's definately a celebration of her life.

We are blessed with many special people close to our daughter so we opted to rent a room for the party. I am no Betty Crocker so cooking (mostly for the safety of our guests) was not an option, although my sweet Mom who actually can cook offered but we went with a caterer.

I think decorations were simple, a few balloons, a banner, paper garland, and pull string pinata. I quibbled over the need for a banner but admit it's really cute and I'm happy we got it. Then I decided I wanted to have a candy-bar to display around the cake, and a small chalkboard sign for the entrance of the room. Since the 2 tier cake will be brought out toward the end of her party my husband thought it'd be good to get cupcakes. I agreed because it will be nice to have some sweets out during the party so he ordered some (with the owl birthday theme) I can't wait to see how cute they look!

Another item I ordered from 'theroyalprincess' on Etsy was bloomers and a bib to match her party theme and colors on her dress. I'm going to attempt to make leg warmers for her in case she gets chilly, I saw a DIY from knee socks online. See link for bloomers, you can request her to personalize characters, colors the owner was very helpful.Etsy personalized bloomers

The other add on was the childrens entertainer, we saw one at our friends babies' birthday and all the kids seemed to have a great time. The one we chose is low key with a guitar and set to sing to the little ones for about 40 minutes. I haven't seen how they are with kids so can't endorse just yet but will do another blog post party.

My husband and I wanted a cake topper, another DIY project we saw was little banners online. We bought wooden meat skewers to use as posts, ribbon to attach the paper flags. I created a word document with diamond shapes and personalized it, we can print, cut, and fold the diamonds over to make the flags. See example you may want to make your own.

Former English Major

Way back when, I was an English major in college; for those that know me, yes I had a few majors but graduated with English. Grammar never was my strong point, I liked old novels and writing stories. My mind was wandering today, I found myself wondering where the phrase, 'there's more than one way to skin a cat' came from. If you think about it, its a gruesome euphemism. Who are these people that skin cats and why do would they know more than one method? I turned to good old google and saw that cat fur was sometimes used in the past (poor kitties) :( At first I was surprised but realized I had purchased a jacket about ten years ago with fur around the hood; it didn't occur to me it was real fur when I bought it. Who knows what little critter unwillingly contributed to it. I purchased without thinking, a mistake I corrected in myself. Much more recently I tried giving up meat, I still eat fish so it's not as difficult as I thought but not sure if I'm getting enough of the protein I need. I don't think it's bad to eat meat but I felt like going without it for awhile. Lets see how long it lasts :) Another tidbit from the site I learned was that in 1832 the House of Commons in England passed a Prevention to Animal Cruelty Act. I thought it was interesting that both then and now people are trying to make it safe for every life in this world. The link is below if you want to check on it.