Bristol's First Birthday Party
Over the past week I've been a busy little bee getting ready for, hosting and then cleaning up after Bristol's first birthday. We asked our friend Jeff to capture the party in photos for us and I'll get those images in a few days, but I thought I'd share the few photos I took at Sunday's party for now. Overall the party was incredible and every detail worked out perfectly. I've been searching for ideas and inspiration for over six months now and I'm so happy with how well everything came together!
The party theme was Very Hungry Caterpillar. As soon as I saw Pottery Barn Kids's line of bedding and bathroom decor last summer I was smitten and couldn't wait to plan a party with that theme. I ended up using several pieces from the PBK collection which I found on clearance last fall in addition to anything and everything caterpillar-related that I could find at a good price :)
In my basement craft room, we set up all the supplies kids could dream of to create their own caterpillars. I spray painted egg cartons green and they had googly eyes, mini poms, glitter, sequins, pipe cleaners, etc. to decorate them with:
We moved our dining room table out of the dining room and into the living room, freeing up space for 3 tables and a bunch of chairs in the dining room for eating:
When guests walked in they first saw a book that they could sign for Bristol and the party favors. The book set up for everyone to sign included photos we had taken of Bristol acting out the Very Hungry Caterpillar story. I'll share those this week--they turned out SO WELL!!
The living room was cleared of furniture for the most part (seating was along the walls) to make room for Bristol and her friends to play on the floor. The main table was at the end of the room and my photos don't even begin to do the details justice. This main table included the first five fruits the caterpillar eats through in the story as well as water bottles and custom party hats created by my sister Kim. Hanging from our ceiling were groupings of tissue paper poms which gave the whole room a major party feel!
We transformed our fireplace into a combination of Bristol's photos and VHC decorations. My step-mom helped to sew pillow covers and I made the bunting. Jaden put together the caterpillar puzzle which I framed for over the fireplace. I thought the main table would be my favorite part of the party, but I actually think the fireplace turned out even better!
Here's the birthday girl, who was sick of posing for photos already at this point, on the fireplace. So super cute in her birthday dress (it's on backwards here--an accident--haha).
I designed the party dress and had it made by a seamstress on etsy. It was P.E.R.F.E.C.T!!
Also located where friends and family walked in was this great photo of the birthday girl:
And Bristol wasn't the only one posing on the fireplace :)
Here's our family just as the party was starting:
And here is the very long caterpillar cake. The head served as Bristol's smash cake and the cupcakes were for guests! (This and all baked goods at the party except for mini muffins were from my friend Shannon's business O' 4 the love of bakin. DELICIOUS!)
Here's the birthday girl showing off her walking skills with Uncle Chris:
And a closer-up view of the caterpillar hanging in the doorway between our kitchen and family room. Each part of the caterpillar's body had a photo from each month of Bristol's first year. It was a fun way to show how much she grew this year!
On the other side of the living room was the gift table. A few friends had arrived when I took this; later on the table was overflowing with wonderful gifts from everyone!
Don't ask me how, but I somehow only took one photo of the kitchen that day. It was this one of the cups and drinks. We had lemonade and clear cherry kool-aid with green caterpillar ice cubes floating in it thanks to my bloggy friend Hannah :) Our kitchen also featured all of the items the VHC eats on Saturday in the story (the junk food so to speak) and the nice green leaf (lettuce) that he eats on Sunday. Thank goodness Jeff got lots of good photos of this area which I can share later :)
Here are a few shots of the birthday girl just before her cake smashing. She wasn't sure what to think of her hat. She loved her bib that her Nana made her though :)
And finally, here are Bristol with a few of her peeps. The little girls are my friends Rachel and Carla's daughters who are each about 5 months younger than Bristol. They'll be besties one day for sure along with a few other baby friends who weren't able to be there :) See the little boy in the top center of the photo? Bristol thinks that's her boyfriend and she wouldn't stop kissing him when he arrived at her party. I don't know what got into her! But he's a major cutie so who could blame her?
Bristol was nakie at that point because she'd just finished her cake and hadn't gotten back into her party dress yet. We took a video of her during her cake smash and I'll share that later this week too.
The party was absolutely perfect; we're so grateful to everyone who came to celebrate with us. We owe thank yous x1000 to everyone who helped us put everything together--friends who provided ideas and assistance with decorations ahead of time, my stepmom and sisters and friend Bobbi for helping all night Saturday and morning Sunday with decorating, my mom for keeping Jaden and Sienna all week so that we could get ready, Scott's mom and step-dad for cutting fruit for us, and my friends Lauren and Mark for heading up the first stage of clean-up. I'm sure I'm forgetting to thank someone and I'm sorry if I am! We are very, very thankful to everyone though and with each of your help it all came together better than we could've imagined.
Little B, I hope you don't think these parties come every year--Mama is exhausted after all this party planning! But you are SO worth it. I know you loved your party; you love being in the limelight. We had the best time celebrating you!! Happy first birthday Bristol Grace!
The party theme was Very Hungry Caterpillar. As soon as I saw Pottery Barn Kids's line of bedding and bathroom decor last summer I was smitten and couldn't wait to plan a party with that theme. I ended up using several pieces from the PBK collection which I found on clearance last fall in addition to anything and everything caterpillar-related that I could find at a good price :)
In my basement craft room, we set up all the supplies kids could dream of to create their own caterpillars. I spray painted egg cartons green and they had googly eyes, mini poms, glitter, sequins, pipe cleaners, etc. to decorate them with:
We moved our dining room table out of the dining room and into the living room, freeing up space for 3 tables and a bunch of chairs in the dining room for eating:
When guests walked in they first saw a book that they could sign for Bristol and the party favors. The book set up for everyone to sign included photos we had taken of Bristol acting out the Very Hungry Caterpillar story. I'll share those this week--they turned out SO WELL!!
The living room was cleared of furniture for the most part (seating was along the walls) to make room for Bristol and her friends to play on the floor. The main table was at the end of the room and my photos don't even begin to do the details justice. This main table included the first five fruits the caterpillar eats through in the story as well as water bottles and custom party hats created by my sister Kim. Hanging from our ceiling were groupings of tissue paper poms which gave the whole room a major party feel!
We transformed our fireplace into a combination of Bristol's photos and VHC decorations. My step-mom helped to sew pillow covers and I made the bunting. Jaden put together the caterpillar puzzle which I framed for over the fireplace. I thought the main table would be my favorite part of the party, but I actually think the fireplace turned out even better!
Here's the birthday girl, who was sick of posing for photos already at this point, on the fireplace. So super cute in her birthday dress (it's on backwards here--an accident--haha).
I designed the party dress and had it made by a seamstress on etsy. It was P.E.R.F.E.C.T!!
Also located where friends and family walked in was this great photo of the birthday girl:
And Bristol wasn't the only one posing on the fireplace :)
Here's our family just as the party was starting:
And here is the very long caterpillar cake. The head served as Bristol's smash cake and the cupcakes were for guests! (This and all baked goods at the party except for mini muffins were from my friend Shannon's business O' 4 the love of bakin. DELICIOUS!)
Here's the birthday girl showing off her walking skills with Uncle Chris:
And a closer-up view of the caterpillar hanging in the doorway between our kitchen and family room. Each part of the caterpillar's body had a photo from each month of Bristol's first year. It was a fun way to show how much she grew this year!
On the other side of the living room was the gift table. A few friends had arrived when I took this; later on the table was overflowing with wonderful gifts from everyone!
Don't ask me how, but I somehow only took one photo of the kitchen that day. It was this one of the cups and drinks. We had lemonade and clear cherry kool-aid with green caterpillar ice cubes floating in it thanks to my bloggy friend Hannah :) Our kitchen also featured all of the items the VHC eats on Saturday in the story (the junk food so to speak) and the nice green leaf (lettuce) that he eats on Sunday. Thank goodness Jeff got lots of good photos of this area which I can share later :)
Here are a few shots of the birthday girl just before her cake smashing. She wasn't sure what to think of her hat. She loved her bib that her Nana made her though :)
And finally, here are Bristol with a few of her peeps. The little girls are my friends Rachel and Carla's daughters who are each about 5 months younger than Bristol. They'll be besties one day for sure along with a few other baby friends who weren't able to be there :) See the little boy in the top center of the photo? Bristol thinks that's her boyfriend and she wouldn't stop kissing him when he arrived at her party. I don't know what got into her! But he's a major cutie so who could blame her?
Bristol was nakie at that point because she'd just finished her cake and hadn't gotten back into her party dress yet. We took a video of her during her cake smash and I'll share that later this week too.
The party was absolutely perfect; we're so grateful to everyone who came to celebrate with us. We owe thank yous x1000 to everyone who helped us put everything together--friends who provided ideas and assistance with decorations ahead of time, my stepmom and sisters and friend Bobbi for helping all night Saturday and morning Sunday with decorating, my mom for keeping Jaden and Sienna all week so that we could get ready, Scott's mom and step-dad for cutting fruit for us, and my friends Lauren and Mark for heading up the first stage of clean-up. I'm sure I'm forgetting to thank someone and I'm sorry if I am! We are very, very thankful to everyone though and with each of your help it all came together better than we could've imagined.
Little B, I hope you don't think these parties come every year--Mama is exhausted after all this party planning! But you are SO worth it. I know you loved your party; you love being in the limelight. We had the best time celebrating you!! Happy first birthday Bristol Grace!
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