The 1st {Birthday} Post!! Part 2 - the details

 Welcome to Harper's Fairy Garden Party!!!!!

We held her party at a local park and I rented out the shelter closest to the playground.  The party was so much fun and several months in the planning.  I was hoping to be unique in the party theme and decor, and although I am not sure if anyone else thought so...I was quite impressed and happy with how it all turned out!  This was a very DIY party and I used a lot of time this summer creating things and bought items along this past year!

The absolute BEST part of the party was when Harper walked in, looked around, and said "thank you" !!!!!! Ahh! Sweetest girl! I'm sure it wasn't exactly what she was meaning, but it still MELTED my heart!!


Harper's Outfit:
I decided to go against the 'normal' big tutu and monogrammed shirt for the 1st birthday and go with what I love...a sweet smocked dress that I found that had fairies on it!  Her birthday topper hat came from a local specialty store and I added the "Happy Birthday" felt letters to it.  Her bloomers were a smocked birthday cake from Little English.

The Favors:
I collected several butterfly catchers and then used the theme colors of tulle to give out to the party kid guests.  I loved how easily it fit the theme! I had a few babies present at the party, so they got a different gift.  They received "bug cups" or personalized snack cups with Puffs filled inside (from my store - The Craft Store).  I always think a favor at a party gives it a nice touch!

The Activity Favor:
I knew I'd have older kids at Harper's party, so I wanted to think of a fun craft that was unique to the theme.  I decided on making Pixie Dust.  I saved baby food jars, spray painted them white, and then added 3D butterflies and fairies on the cap and tied tulle around the middles.  Then I poured Willy Wonka pixie sticks into 6 different cups (cups had the flower cupcake holders around it) and kids could create their own edible pixie dust! I think the kids had a lot of fun doing this and some adults got in on the action, too!

The Special Touch:
I bought The Birthday Book by Dr. Suess earlier this year.  I thought it would be so cool to ask Harper's guests to write a little note to her for her birthday!  Most guests wrote in the book and the little sentiments were the sweetest! 1st Birthdays are a big deal, but we invited a lot more people to this birthday than we will for future birthdays.  It was so neat and it will be so neat for Harper to understand one day how many people have been praying for her this past year and loved her so much to attend the party! *We had over 70 people at the party! So blessed to have that many people be praying and loving on her!!*

my granddaddy signing xoxo

The Decor:
I used pink butcher paper to create a middle of the food table.  My awesome Dad hung a million butterflies from the ceiling of the shelter and helped with making sure that butcher paper wouldn't fall down!  I used pink table cloths and green polka dot wrapping paper as the table cloths of the food table, gift table, and favor table.  I used pink, green, and purple tulle every where I could! I created a tutu for around Harper's highchair.  The paper flowers and butterflies were created by yours truly and took about a million hours to make! :) But oh so fun!  I asked my Uncle to cut down round pieces of wood from the Farm to create a woodland feel for the cupcakes and food to set on instead of a traditional cupcake stand.  I also bought several floral boxes and hot-glued moss around them to again create a garden/woodland feel.  Polka Dot balloons were also hung in various places as well as the opening to the shelter with a cute large mushroom sign.  Harper's 12 month photos were strung along two columns and were created on large flower looking disks that Hubby helped me make to show her growth progression.  That was one of my favorite crafts I created for the party and it proudly hangs in Harper's room now!

her baby scrapbook, picture books from this past year

The Food:
Thanks to my Mom!!! We created all themed food for our guests! Although the party time was after the typical lunch time I wanted to still have some food to offer.  Good thing! All the food was eaten!!  We got very creative with each food idea!
Garden Catepillars - grapes
Fruity Wands - fruits on a stick
PB&J's - cut out in flower and butterfly shapes - these were SO cute...look closely in the pics!
Mushrooms - marshmellows with strawberries on top
Veggie Garden - vegetables in flowers and grass shapes
Sweet Wands - cake pops with edible glitter
Garden Worms - pasta salad
Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Chips and Artichoke dip

{most foods were in other pics that have already been shown!}

The Cake &Cupcakes:
Special thanks to my friend Tiffany from Tiffany's Cakes who made all the cupcakes and cake pops and they turned out exactly as I wanted!!! Half of the cupcakes were edible purple and pink glitter icing, pink cake inside with fairies, the other half were the same but with candy butterflies on top.  SOO cute and yummy! I mean, I just sent her a picture, begged, and she created!!

My sister actually made Harper's Smash Cake! It was amazing!! She honestly thought of the idea herself and offered to make it! It was so sweet! She used a Tinkerbell Doll and made the cake white inside (we are trying to keep Harper away from Red Dye 40 as much as we can) with pink and purple on the outside.  It was delish as well!

Invitations & Thank You Notes:

Horrible Pic!! It says: Fairy Dust & Pixies, Giggles & Glitter, Harper is turning 1, Let's all celebrate with her!
{it was a floral pink design background}

floral/garden theme with a monogram of course!



Special Thanks:
pictures - Mary Maldonado Photography
cake/cake pops - Tiffany's Cakes, local
invitation and favor tags - Haute Chocolate Etsy Shop, custom design
thank you notes - VistaPrint
butterfly wings, butterflies - The Hair Bow Company
lawn fairies, mushroom, tulle, number 1 and O-N-E - Hobby Lobby
butterfly catchers - The Dollar Store
snack cups - The Craft Store
bib - Allie's Appliques & Embroidery, custom design
Harper's Smocked Fairy Dress - Smocked Auctions on FB (thanks sister for the fast bid!!)

Birthday To Come...

I'm waiting on our photographer's pics to share with you all Harper's First Birthday!! It was such fun but WHEW it had way too much work into it! Please tell me every birthday party doesn't have to be as extreme as the 1st one?!?!?

Here's a sneak peek....

Happy Birthday!

Hubs' birthday was on 7-07. He was SO sweet to offer to take Harper to the Aquarium on his day and we had the best time! {read about it here} I've done big parties for him in the past, but we agreed to just go more low-key this year and we both enjoyed it.

We also enjoyed dinner with a few close friends that night, too!

I let B open his presents from Harper and I a little early since we were meeting my family on the 4th for his breakfast birthday and my parent's present went along with mine! :)  He was quite surprised and I was so excited to get him an iPad.  We are sooo not those cool in the know people who have Apple products, but I knew he'd be able to use it a lot with his job and that eventually Harper would be able to do some learning games on it...and he's gotten me a lot of gifts this year {haha, push present, fancy camera, etc.} that I saved and got an amazing deal online.  Anyways, I can pretty much say it was a hit!

Happy 31 Years Hubby! Harper and I love you!!

Turtle Caramel Brownies and Cheesecake Brownies with 31 in strawberries:)

Birthday!

So, a few Fridays ago {4/20} I celebrated my LAST year in my twenties! Ahh! So hard to believe!

We celebrated all weekend long, aren't I lucky?!

On Friday night, my school had our annual Spring Carnival. Brian, Harper, and I strolled around for the entire time. My sister and her boys, and my Mom and Dad also came out to play, so it was a good time! My past and current students were excited to meet Harper!  Then we finished off the night with some yummy Chik-Fil-A and a milkshake all before 7:30 so that we could get Harper in the bath and off to bed. Ooh, the life of a Mom! :)

Saturday I got to see my friend Jennifer for her bridal shower and hubby took me shopping on some birthday money for new clothes!

On Saturday night, my sweet hubby planned a fun night! He asked my parents to babysit Harper so we could go out! They graciously offered to come to our house so they would be able to put Harper down for bed and we could stay out longer, YAY!!
He invited our life group to go and we went to a Hibachi Grill - Asuka. LOVE that place and haven't been able to go since they babe came!  It was SO much fun not being on too much of a time limit and just hanging out. I had an absolute blast!!





On Sunday, our family celebrated with a yummy lunch Mom made and homemade Raspberry Chocolate Cheesecake. YUM!

he loves this chair!

colby helping

??these are out of order...but this was later that night - she loves to climb on you if you're on the floor!

me and my baby!

29, here I come!

Our Weekend/Week/Weekend!

Gahh! This post has been hard to write!! So, I'm going to be super random and get everything out there in one {long} post so I will remember! :) Feel free to not read it all! haha

First off, Check out Jen's Pearly Wisdom where some of my comments were featured with some baby must-haves!! Check it out here.

Ok, so this past weekend was awesome! Hubby and I had 3 days off with our little baby and it was so nice! Sundays are so much more enjoyable when you know you have Monday off! What did we do with our weekend?! Well, we shopped more for furniture{we are re-doing the family room! wahoo!}, ate out a ton with friends and family, and had my Mom's birthday! It was great. I just love this time with Harper. She's so easy going and loves to get out and 'explore'.  I get a little giddy each time someone compliments her ;).

Go UK!

LOVES books! Anyone received any books yet from the exchange?!?

bundled up at the restaurant!

about to go furniture shopping!

Saul Good for GG's Birthday

I also cleaned out and organized Harper's closet. It was SO sad. I told B he had to do it next. I'm usually the worst at remembering things, but each little outfit I pulled out of H's closet; I could remember what point in my pregnancy I bought it or who gave it to her and when she wore each outfit and pj! It was hard on this little Momma to pack up the NB and 0-3months outfits.  They are so sweet and tiny. I laid a few next to H as she was watching me {mind you, it was 6am on Saturday morning while we were doing this!} and she looked like a giant compared to those clothes! We also shopped a little more and bought H some more clothes for her newly spaced-out closet! HAHA

i can put this little organizer away :(

We've also been putting H in her high-chair while we eat dinner! It's working perfectly!! We stuff blankets on the sides so she sits up better, but I think she appreciates it being able to be eye-level with us!

**Don't forget to PLAY in the adorable bow give-away!!!! Click HERE to find the post and enter! I'll be choosing the winner on Friday afternoon!!! :)

{ps- I'm looking for a 200th Follower give-away...if you'd like to have your product featured for this, email me @ megek4@yahoo.com!}

Dad and Colby's Birthdays!

Shoo Wee! I'm getting worse and worse on having time to post lately!

Here's a recap of the past few weekends in Jan.  We celebrated my Dad's birthday...

 And also Colby's 3rd Birthday! He had a train theme with lots of fun details all made by his Momma! She made all kinds of fun foods, had trains to paint for an activity, and the party favors were personalized train whistles and personalized crayon boxes to color a train page! I had lots more photos to upload...but blogger is being slow! :)

painting trains