Hadley Marie: 1st Birthday Party

In keeping with the bird/tree/nature theme I was going for, I decorated with burlap as the table coverings and also to cover the straw bales I used for seating.  The wrapped and embellished “H” was featured on the cake table.  The Happy Birthday banner I made for Arden’s pink party made a reappearance as part of the little backdrop I made with our old wooden fence gate behind.

The cakes were made by Linda Lewis, owner of Once Upon a Wedding Cake.  I was thrilled to have her make cakes for Hadley’s party as we were so pleased with our wedding cake she made five years ago.  The little smash cake for Hadley was French vanilla cake with whipped cream and fresh blueberry filling.  You’ll see below that Hadley went nuts for it!!  The bigger cake for the rest of the guests was lemon cake with raspberry filling; the same combination we had at our wedding – yum!

For food, I made spaghetti “nests” by twirling angel hair pasta on a fork and then setting several fresh mozzarella “eggs” – little perline mozzarella balls into each nest.  There were also gummy and sour gummy worms, a fruit and yogurt parfait station, fresh veggies and dip, cocktail weenies and a special dish called pigeon droppings.  It’s just onions, mayonnaise, mushroom stems & pieces, and swiss cheese in a pie plate and baked, but if you’ve ever had a near miss with a pigeon or a seagull, you know what it looks like…

Our birthday gift to her was this little Pewi ride on by Ybike.  She has taken to it strongly already and uses the front part as a walker and also straddles it to ride and scoot around.  It’s on caster weels so she can go wherever, and they roll well enough to even go on grass.  The only drawback so far is that Arden also really likes it and wants to ride on it, causing a few tears on her part.

Hadley was true to her nature and played the perfect little hostess; smiling and waving to everyone.  We had fewer guests than we were planning for, which contributed to a nice low-key event.  The only downside is we have a ton of yummy cake left – oh darn!

So here are the best part of any first birthday party – the cake smash series!!  Hadley put on a perfect performance – tentative at first, looking at us to see if we were really going to let her have at the cute cake I set before her…

… the first taste, with only her fingertips catching some of the yummy frosting …

… “hmm, that was tasty – maybe I can just put the whole thing in my mouth?” …

Here’s a little gif file showing the smash in motion.

The aftermath.  Both Dave and I sampled her cake and those fresh berries and whipped cream were to die for.  Hadley found those and mined for them the rest of the time.

Daddy giving her some off a fork – how civilized!

This photo is hilarious because it looks like she’s saying “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing!” and about to lose her tummy, but really we took it away shortly after the photo above and she was fine and dandy the rest of the day.

I’ll be linking up to many of these great parties:

Mondays Making the World Cuter Monday – Making the World Cuter Made By You Monday – Skip to My Lou Craftastic Monday – Sew Can Do Making Mondays Marvelous – C.R.A.F.T. Market Yourself Monday – Sumo’s Sweet Stuff Creative Me Monday – The Southern Institute Tuesdays I Made It Without My Hubby – Shanty 2 Chic Sew Cute Tuesdays – Creative Itch Anything Related – All Things Related Tot Tuesdays – My Delicious Ambiguity Tute-in Tuesdays – Oops, I Craft My Pants Take a Look Tuesdays – Sugar Bee Craft Edition Shwin&Shwin Wednesdays We Did It Wednesdays – Sew Much Ado Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice – Seven Thirty Three Show & Tell – Blue Cricket Design Show Me What Ya Got – Not Just a Housewife Your Whims Wednesdays – My Girlish Whims Thursdays Strut-Your-Stuff – Somewhat Simple Make It, Wear It – The Train to Crazy It’s Stinkin’ Cute – Sew Stinkin’ Cute Show Off Your Stuff – Fireflies and Jellybeans Making It With Allie – What Allie’s Making Now Pinspirational Thursdays – The ArtsyGirl Connection Fridays Furniture Feature Friday – Miss Mustard Seed Weekend Wrap Up Party – Tatertots and Jello Feature Yourself Friday – Fingerprints on the Fridge Friday Fun Finds – KojoDesigns Weekends Check Me Out Saturday – A Vision to Remember Show and Tell Saturday – Be Different Act Normal Sunday Scoop – I Heart Naptime Sunday Showcase Party – Under the Table and Dreaming A Pinteresting Party – Tutus & Tea Parties Sunday Roundup – A Rosie Sweet Home