This past weekend we celebrated Eleanor turning one. It was a fun day full of family and friends and yummy food and cake. I still can't believe that she is one already. I re-read her birthday letter the day of the party and found myself tearing up at the fact that her first year of life has come and gone. It goes by so fast.
The windows in our morning room are the perfect backdrop for the cake table and so I usually try to find ways of dressing it up. Since Eleanor's party theme was hot air balloons I found two different cut files in the Silhouette studio and used some cardstock to create a variety of sizes of hot air balloons and clouds. I simply re-sized the templates to meet the sizes I needed. I strung them up with some twine and they were the perfect colorful touch. I just added a white curtain and some crepe paper for texture and called it done. My cake designs came from here and here and I was thrilled with how they turned out! I have used the same baker for both of Adeline's cakes and Landen's birthday cake and she never fails to disappoint. If you are in the Dayton/Cincinnati area you can find her here. Totally worth it and they taste amazing!
The photo wall is always a huge hit. I whipped up some tags using my silhouette and some stamps and then went through my iPhoto and pulled 3-4 photos of Eleanor from each month. It's so fun to see how she has changed throughout the year. I also bought her this book and had all the guests sign it. I did the same for Adeline and it's definitely a tradition that I will keep up if/when we have more kids.
Food was simple. Pulled BBQ pork from this recipe, mac and cheese (from the box), chips, and cake pops. Easy to pull together and still very yummy.
Landen likes to remind me that I bite off more than I chew when it comes to the girl's parties but I always love the end result. If it wasn't for the family and friends that chip in to keep me calm and do all the last minute tasks (like helping me figure out how to hang the hot air balloons from the curtain rods, thanks Sis!) I'd never be able to pull it off.
It was a great day and we ended it with some pool time and then a small campfire with smores. My little girl is one. How did that happen?
Oh and sunglasses won as best gift for sure!
