My Baby is One
This month, I made the cake. (I need to practice my writing skills, BLAH.) It turns out that Bubba was the only person in the whole group with an October birthday. We're a pretty good sized group, too. Crazy, huh?
The hostess put a hat on him and I tried to snap a picture, but he was being all wiggly so I didn't really get a good one. He also received his first birthday present that day.
He got a set of little Tonka trucks and some bath toys. I pulled out the trucks when we got home and he spent a good half hour playing with them in his box, which anyone with a crawling baby can tell you is a really long time!
On Thursday I made the sugar cookies using my new oval cookie cutters, and then iced them with bright yellow royal icing. Before it had a chance to set, I placed a monkey on top that I had carefully peeled from the waxed paper. Fortunately, I had left sufficient time for them to dry so I had no casualties.
I had seen the cutest idea for a party decoration using salt water taffy on Jaimee Rose's blog, and I was determined to make this for Bubba's party. I found a website that sells candy by color (genius!) but they refused to ship to me because it was too hot here. The candy would melt during shipping. Undaunted, I tried to order that dang blue and yellow salt water taffy once a week, for a whole month, only to be refused each time. Finally, the site deemed our weather suitable for candy shipping, but by that time I would have to use second day shipping to ensure deliver on time for the party. Shipping cost for $20 of candy? Oh, only thirty bucks.
From left to right - party hats, bananas, white almond sour cream cupcakes with vanilla almond frosting, Bubba's party hat, a mix of bright blue M&M's and banana runts, my salt water taffy bouquet, more bananas, and individually bagged sugar cookies. (You can click on any of these photos to enlarge them for a closer look.) I punched blue and yellow circles from scraps of cardstock and scattered them around the table. The bananas as decoration idea was from one of the moms in our playgroup. The cupcake wrappers from Smeeks worked out beautifully to keep them with the color scheme, as I didn't want to use any food coloring just in case some people wanted to share with their babies. That stuff stains something terrible!
Party favor boxes, ordered from First Wishes. Inside they each contained 4 pack of crayons, an activity book that is WAAAAAY beyond a baby's capabilities (but oh well! Fun for the dads, perhaps?), a strand of colored mardi gras beads, a monkey sticker, a little stuffed beanie baby monkey type thing, a pair of yellow Curious George sunglasses, and a monkey cookie. They came with miniature pots of play dough, but there was no way I was giving that to a bunch of babies so I left it out. They were donated to my friend's kindergarten class prize box.
The party guests hanging out in the living room. We threw a whole bunch of Bubba's toys in a laundry basket and then just dumped them all over the floor. Messy, but fun for the babies!
The spread, from left to right, top to bottom - shredded beef, shredded chicken, taco toppings (tomatoes, lettuce, colby jack cheese, green onions, limes), salsa, guacamole, sour cream, flour tortillas in the warmer for soft tacos, hard taco shells, Mexican rice, beans (from a can, I cheated), and corn chips. I simmered the beef for three hours and the chicken for one and a half the night before, and then just reheated it for the party. I made the rice and guacamole fresh that morning.
As you can see, I went with the monkey napkins but opted for buying solid colored plates and flatware at Party City. You don't want to commit overkill with your theme, after all!
This is the bunting I made earlier in the week. Each colored circle is punched from cardstock, then machine sewed onto the large white cardstock triangles. I punched out the lace borders using my Fiskars threading water edge punch, and sewed them on as well. To hold the whole thing together, a long piece of ribbon was sewn across the tops using a zig zag stitch. The letters spelling out the baby's name were cut with my Silhouette. The font used for those, as well as the invitation and everything else is called Hopscotch Plain. I think there might be a Quickutz font based on that one too, if you're interested in that sort of thing.
Here, one of the party guests models the monkey hat. I'll tell you what, I will NEVER buy party hats again. Not only are they a huge waste of money (most didn't even get worn) they are a pain in the butt to assemble. I am not a fan.
This is the hat I made for the baby. I saw these cute hats when I was at Smeeks, but at $25 each, they were a little bit out of my price range. Also, they had none in my color scheme, and well, you already know how important that is. Luckily, not only am I cheap, but I'm crafty as well, and I was able to figure out how to make one of my very own from cardstock, patterned paper, some trim, various odds and ends, and a bit of glue. Not bad, eh? The number one is covered in teal glitter and the little banner underneath says "Birthday Boy."
Here is his smash cake. I don't know why that one side isn't round like the rest. Oh well. I used some of the leftover icing monkeys to decorate the sides, and leftover blue frosting from the playgroup cake for the borders.
Instead of a boring old candle (my boy has more flair than that!), I stuck a sparkler in the shape of the number one on the cake. That was another Smeeks purchase. I'm telling you, this store is small, but awesome. Since the baby was distracted, we were able to get the hat on him for another photo.
It took a little while for him to figure out what he was supposed to do with that cake. At first, he was very carefully sticking just one finger at a time into the icing.
That baby ate almost a quarter of this 5" round (4" tall) cake! He was definitely a fan of the frosting too, and not at all shy about showing his preference.
He wanted to taste one of the monkeys.
The more tissue paper that accumulated on the table, the more excited he became. He would grab handfuls and wave it around, squealing and screaming in joy all the while. It was pretty dang funny.
As you can see, by this time the sugar had kicked in it's magic in a major way and Bubba was all over the place. He was making faces and blowing raspberries like it was going out of style. Our friend's daughter kept giving him these looks like, "What is WRONG with that kid???"
Every time I would try to take a picture, he'd scrunch up his face and blow more raspberries at me. I just wanted one of him and his dad in their matching shirts!
Silly baby. As soon as everyone left, he totally crashed and passed out in my arms. Drunk from mama's icing, I guess! It worked out well though, because we were able to clean up while he napped. When we got home from the party, we opened up the gifts from his grandparents, and then took a much deserved rest.
It's a Bilibo! I know most people will look at this thing and totally be like, WHAT THE HELL??? But I'm telling you, it's awesome. It's this Swiss designed toy that is completely open ended. That means it's up to the child to decide what it is and how it will be used. You can put things inside, sit in it, rock in it, spin yourself in it, wear it, hit it, stand on it... it's up to you to decide.
Labels: about me, Bubba, cooking, cupcakes, friends, husband, photos, scrapbooking, sewing, shopping, sugar art
8 Comments:
You did an amazing job! Everything looked absolutely perfect! I'm very impressed by it all.
Great party!! I am so impressed with all your craftiness displayed at the party!! I'm definitely going to be "stealing" some of your ideas for Gabriella's party!!! Happy Birthday Bubba!
That's awesome! I wish I was as crafty as you...I made my own banner but I wish I knew something about icing to make cookies...the are too cute!
Looks like it was a great party! :)
And see, we told you that you'd be great at this Mama Stuff! You're in for a lot of fun times ahead. Each new stage is precious. Pretty soon he'll be walking (first step already accomplished!) and talking. And the questions will start. I've always told my husband that they aren't "babies" anymore when they lose those cute little dimples in their hands. Congratulations on a wonderful First Year. :)
Your craftiness is inspiring!! The party decorations were adorable...loved some of the ideas!!
Happy Birthday to your little toddler!
Happy birthday Bubba!
What a wonderful party! You are an awesome cook. The idea to make those monkey cookies from the outline is very cool. And the theme was super, so smartly followed up all around the party.
WOW! I love love love it all. Such great ideas and beautiful execution! Happy Birthday Bubba, he's a lucky boy!
I am inspired! Where can I find the monkey face you used for your cookies?
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