This past week, my daughter, Giuliana, turned the ONE. It was a crazy, beautiful time for us. As most read in my Letter To Her in a previous post on her birthday, I was happy, blessed, and sad all at the same time. The one thing that I wanted for her, as every mom does, is to throw her a great First Birthday Party! And that is what I did! I hope you enjoy seeing all the fun and crafty things that we did to help make this first birthday party so special. I will definitely have a follow-up post on how I created some of these crafty items later, but for now, enjoy and celebrate like we did! [caption id="attachment_1252" align="aligncenter" width="614"] First Birthday Invite[/caption] Of course we have to have a picture of our little girl in her birthday dress. I actually bought this dress at JCPenny's for under $30! It is a dress from one of their designers, Wendy Belissimo. She wasn't a very happy camper at first, poor thing only had an hour nap before her big party! [caption id="attachment_1256" align="aligncenter" width="536"] Her Birthday Party Dress[/caption]

Since the theme was Sugar and Spice, it's only appropriate to have a whole table full of lots and lots of sugary goodies for the kiddos to eat!

[caption id="attachment_1259" align="aligncenter" width="717"] Sugar and Spice Table[/caption] I created the backdrop garland behind the table with pieces of fabric that were cut from JoAnn Fabrics (gotta love them), then tied them knots across a piece of string. The table had all sorts of sweets! Gummy bears, pixie sticks, wafers, gum balls and even lollipops! Most of the candy we purchased from Oriental Trading, and from GFS Warehouse. Dave and I actually made the Rice Krispie Treats dipped in pink and white chocolate, as well as the dipped pretzel sticks! [caption id="attachment_1322" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Sugar and Spice Dessert Table[/caption]

Of course, we had to add the cake smack in the middle of the sugary sweets. I placed the cake and some apothecary jars on top of old hat boxes that I had, to still give it that vintage feel.

[caption id="attachment_1321" align="aligncenter" width="700"] CupCake Cake[/caption]

Wondering about this awesome cake? Well, hop on over to my sweet blogger friend, turned real friend, Jacquie over at Sweeter Side of Mommyhood. You are gonna love her cakes! She made this day extra special, by doing Giuliana's Smash Cake, and mini cupcakes!

[caption id="attachment_1271" align="aligncenter" width="614"] Mini Cupcakes[/caption] I made the printables, or found them online, printed them out and placed them all in frames across the entire room. All of them where sayings about Sugar and Spice, or something that was related to her. Her favorite song, is Ho Hey by The Lumineers, I know strange, but I sang this song to her ever since she was a baby. So I put the main lyrics in a frame next to her picture.

Here are a few other printable subway art signs that I found online. I just printed them out in 5x7 frames from Ikea, the white ones ( which are the best frames, might I add).

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The one thing I absolutely loved about putting together her party, was the fun activities we had for the kids to do!

[caption id="attachment_1317" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Cookie Decorating Station[/caption]

Sticking with the Sugar and Spice theme, I wanted the kids to have something "sugary" to take home with them (after the all the sugar candy of course). So we baked 80 Sugar Cookies the night before, 4 batches of colored icing, and bought about 8 different toppings to put on the cookies. I called it "The Cookie Decorating Station". The kids.loved.it.

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The two other small things we did, was to make sure we had some bubbles and coloring books. These I just purchased at the dollar store, so that way the kids could take them home as well.

Also, I picked up a "Kids Photo Booth" pack at Walmart for five dollars! It had a backdrop and funny faces that the kids could use to take pictures with!

Now, of course a party isn't a party without awesome food! So thanks to my parents, my sister, and Dave's parents, they made some pretty great food for the occasion! Here was the menu:

[caption id="attachment_1326" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Menu for the Party[/caption]

and our drinks... Pop, Iced Tea, Pink Lemonade, and Raspberry sherbert Punch, that was a smash!

I used Mason Jars, with pink and white striped straws and lids to make cups for all the kiddos!

And now for the decorations! I seriously had so much fun being crafty. If any of you reading, know my mom, that is where I get my craftiness from. She has thrown so many beautiful events for me, as well as all the organizations she belongs to. This time, of course I needed her advice, but wanted to tackle this one on my own. I wanted to do it for Giuliana. I want to be able to pass down what my mom did for me to her.

First, everyone keeps asking me what I did with my shutters! I just painted them, from an antique green to white. I used them for her backdrop for her smash cake pictures.

I also made another fabric garland, this time with chevron fabric, for behind her. Each side connected to the shutters.

Cut some burlap, and used a little white fabric paint to make her a name banner.

Also, my mom recovered my old highchair that my sister and I used when we were little, with pink polka dot fabric! Was so cute!

[caption id="attachment_1331" align="aligncenter" width="700"] All set to Smash up some cake![/caption] If you see in all the pictures, there is a garland of pictures hanging up on each wall. I hung pictures up of her with guests that were there, and tons of other pictures from her first year. Just used tiny clothespins that I also bought at Oriental Trading to hold them up on the string, and it turned out so great! I loved seeing all the guests looking at her pictures, especially the ones with them in it! The one thing that everyone raved about was her Chalkboard First Year Milestone Poster! I loved this idea from the minute I saw it! Please check out, Twitterpated Prints on Etsy. She will create anything you like! Awesome to work with, and gets it back to you very quickly! One last thing I want to share with you all is the centerpieces. I didn't want anything big, so I went to Kara's Party Ideas online, and bought the white party frames that fit a 4x6 picture, and it is two-sided, which worked perfectly for my plan!! Every month since she was born, I would always take a birthday picture of her. So, I used those, and on the other side of the frame, printed out what she was doing, or liking at that month. It was so fun to look back at how big she got, and all the things that she loved then, but hates now!

An lastly, MOST important part, the smashing of the cake! Her is she, and loving it! It took her a few seconds to warm up to it, but then she went at it!

Thank you to all that came to celebrate with us, and of course all of you reading! I hope you get some creative ideas, but mostly, remember to celebrate your little ones, we only get one chance!!

Happy Birthday again my little princess!

CHEERS,

NICOLE