I've literally been thinking about Leah's first birthday party almost since the day I found out I was pregnant and it has fully consumed much of my thoughts and my many sleepless nights for the last few months. Honestly, does it get any better than a little girls' birthday party? (even if she's only one and doesn't have a clue what's going on)
I'm almost embarrassed to admit how much fun I had preparing for this party and working on all the details.
And in the end... It was totally worth every late night and every single ounce of work.
{the birthday girl}
{the food}
We did a traditional cookies and milk party with literally dozens and dozens of homemade cookies, as well as cookie dough cupcakes, oreo cupcakes and macaroon cupcakes.
{the happy family}
{the details}I had the fabulous Gretchen from
ThreeLittleMonkeys Studio design a custom party pack for me, using her cookies and milk designs. I wanted it fun and bright and circus-y! She totally delivered and I loved how it all turned out.
I also used some of the
free printables from my awesome friends at
Petite Lemon. The "Birthday Banner" is what originally made me choose the colors that I did.
I ordered much of my fun party decor from
Shop Sweet Lulu. Love that place.
I used Design Mom's
tutorial to make the fun and oh-so-easy balloon banner.
There are a million tutorials on-line for the accordion flowers and I can't remember which I used.
{the cake}
My amazing, talented, baker extraordinaire of a friend, Gina, made Leah's adorable ribbon cake... a coconut layer cake with an italian meringue buttercream frosting that tasted like a little bit heaven.
I used some of the printables from both ThreeLittleMonkeys and Petite Lemon to make the cake topper pennant.
{the gifts}
{the time capsule}
This is the project that I was most excited about and have been working so hard on. One of the main gifts we did for Leah is a time capsule that she won't even get until her 18th birthday!!
We included an insert card with her invitations asking all of our family, friends and guests to write her a personal letter as well as share some of their hopes and wishes for her. When the party was over Chris and I sat in bed and read these amazing and priceless letters along with all of these sweet and thoughtful wishes for our little daughter. I cried my eyes out. I hope that she will cherish these letters from grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, friends and a mama and daddy who love her so much.
I also included some other special mementos from her first year, including her hospital bracelet and other little keepsakes from her birth, the outfit she came home from the hospital in, the matching bracelets she and I wore on her blessing day, her first hand and footprints, pictures throughout her first year, ticket stubs from fun things we done, a special gift from her namesake Grandma Leah and lots of other special little trinkets.
It was probably my very favorite part of the whole party.
Oh how we love this girl.
{littlemiss birthday girl}
{opening presents}She has so much fun with the ribbons, bows and tissue paper.... it was a real treat when she realized that wasn't even the best part!!
"I can't believe this is all for me!!"
{littlemiss dolly}The gift that I have been giddy about for months.
I had an amazingly talented friend of mine,
Jessica, make Leah a special doll, just for her. And not only that, but a just-her-size apron to match. They turned out so darling and Leah LOVED them. She kept kissing her doll and giving her loves. This girl can melt my heart pretty quickly.
You can see more about her doll and all of the amazing details
here.
Finally, it was time for
"happy birthday" and cake!!
She couldn't stop smiling and loved everyone singing to her...
...and she was totally fascinated with the flaming candle.
{let her eat cake}I have been pretty hardcore about what Leah has eaten her first year. I breastfed exclusively, never supplementing with formula, I made all of my own babyfood, never serving her anything processed and especially never giving her any sweets. And now here she was with an entire cake to have her way with.
She didn't know what to think at first, but loved sinking both her hands and feet into it. She loved her first few bites, but then sugar overload seemed to kick in pretty quick. I suppose it's bound to happen when squash is the sweetest thing you've ever had.
She was hysterical and messy and funny....
at least at first...
... but once she realized that she was tired of cake and the sticky mess and was just plain tired... the meltdown began.
Luckily... some mama snuggles and a quick warm bath helped calm her down...
...and some post-bath snuggles with her new little friend seemed to make it all better.
{the verdict}
Leah's First Birthday Bash was a total, smashing success!
{happy happy birthday, my darling}
***
Huge, gigantic thanks goes to my awesome and talented friend, Brandon, who I bribed (translation=grossly underpaid) to come and take pictures of her party. I ended up with 650 awesome & priceless pictures of a party that I had worked so hard on. I didn't pick up my camera once.... I just enjoyed making memories with my baby girl. Best decision I've ever made.
Thanks also to my parents and sister who helped me bake oodles of cookies and cupcakes and set up for and make this party happen.
Thanks to all of our amazing family and friends who came and showered us with love. Leah is so lucky to have you all in her life and so are we.
Thanks to CJ for humoring me and letting me go crazy to make this special. She's so lucky to have you for her daddy.
And thank you to my littlemiss for giving purpose to absolutely everything I do.
xox
She had 7 baths in a 48 hour period. 4 in one day. Sometimes things are so bad and so nasty that a bath is the only option. I wished for a hazmat suit on more than one occasion.
Luckily, the worst of it was over pretty quick and it didn't take long before she was back to playing...
...and looking for trouble. 
This beautiful tree right outside yard is an epic example of how beautiful things are this time of year.
We took full advantage of better health, beautiful weather and no work and made the most of the fall weekend. We started by sleeping in, staying in our pjs and enjoying pumpkin buttermilk pancakes with fresh maple whipped cream. (and they were not yucky) I wish every day could start out like that.
Then we decided to take a drive up the canyon and do a little hike to enjoy all of the amazing colors. Minus all the burrs we were picking out of our clothes all afternoon, it was perfect, picnic and all!
We live in the best neighborhood in all the world and capped off our Saturday with a good ole' fashioned street party hoe-down... complete with bbq, hayrides, line dancin', cowboys and loads of fun with all of our friends and neighbors. We broke out our denim and plaid, dressing like it was Sadie Hawkins, and loved every minute of the fun!!
As if our weekend wasn't already overloaded with fun... we harvested all of our pumpkins. Yay, us! They are perfect and darling and just LJ's size and we couldn't be any more proud of ourselves.
(and pumpkins aren't the only thing we successfully grew this year. It's been a pretty good harvest season for the rookie gardners around these parts.)
How about finishing off our week of highs and lows with a perfect fall meal, (thank you pinterest) with comfort food written all over it. (We're kinda on a pumpkin kick over here, if you couldn't tell... I didn't even mention the pumpkin chocolate chip muffins we made and devoured on Friday) 
