Hazeline’s Farm Themed First Birthday Celebration

Hazeline’s first birthday party this past Saturday was absolutely perfect.  I could relive it 100 times and it might not be enough.  As promised, I wanted to share a few pictures from the party.  I didn’t take very many pictures myself, but a friend took some pictures with my camera and I was able to get a few from others that uploaded theirs to Facebook.  Thank goodness for Facebook!

It all started with the invitation designed by Becca at Jumping Jax Designs.  (Please don’t ask why my child is outside in pajamas.  Turns out the only time I can get a picture of Hazeline without Greenleigh in the frame is if I do it at the crack of dawn and Greenleigh isn’t up yet.  Go figure.  This picture was taken at 7am.)My original thought was to have a pink farm theme, but as we got closer to the event, I realized that it was going to be extremely difficult to get farm themed supplies from the store in pink.  I considered having everything made custom, but I was running out of time, so after the invite we went with red with other primary color accents.

For entertainment we had a bounce house, petting zoo, and ponies.  The petting zoo was a total hit.  All the kids stood and watched as the animals arrived and they put the animals’ pen together.  The petting zoo was supposed to start at 11:30am, but they arrived a little early.  At that point the kids were all pressed up against the pen with such excitement in their eyes, I asked if they would start early.  The petting zoo people were super nice and agreed.I started by carrying her through the petting zoo, but she wanted to get down and explore on her own.  How could I say no?  It was her party.She was remarkably gentle with all the animals.  She just wanted to touch them all.  This one is probably my favorite picture:She’s like, “Um, Mom?  Are you sure this is okay?  What is this thing anyway?”  Oh, and that shirt she’s wearing was made by Cynthia at Baby Chichi Boutique.  That woman can make just about anything!  I was nervous to approach her with such a custom order, but she didn’t bat an eye and had something put together in a few hours.  The shirt was sent out a day or so later and arrived in no time.

She also got her very first pony ride ever.Big sister couldn’t get enough of the ponies, but was terrified of the petting zoo.  Every time I turned around, she was on a pony again.The bounce house was also a hit.  We had the bounce house on one side of our park pavilion and the petting zoo and ponies on the other side.  The kids just ran between both attractions, loving every minute.  And yes, that is my child pressing her self against the side like she’s a caged animal.  Oh my.I may have bounced in the bounce house myself…I had to test it and make sure it was safe…

Then came the best part – CAKE!  I just loved her cake.  It was made by Shannon at Cups & Cakes in Plantation, Florida.  Her cakes (or cupcakes for this party) look great, but taste even better.  Her vanilla cake is divine. 
I was always kinda “meh” about cupcakes for a party, but in this case it worked perfectly.  We didn’t do the cake until after the petting zoo closed at 1:15pm, and a few people had to leave before that.  Having cupcakes allowed us to give people their cupcakes “to go”.  Remember, a solo cup is a perfect cupcake carrier!Then it was smash cake time.  That large cupcake on the top tier was actually supposed to be her smash cake, but Hazeline is not big on cake.  She’s had it before and likes it, but there was no way she would even put a dent in that huge cupcake, so I decided to give her one of the regular size cupcakes with sprinkles on it.  She was a little unsure while we sang to her –Did I mention that it’s hard to avoid photographing Greenleigh – well, she even got to her sister’s smash cupcake!She finally got a chance to eat a little and seemed to enjoy it.  (Also, in case you missed my high chair birthday banner tutorial you can check it out here.)
This was about as messy as it got.  She’s so dainty compared to Greenleigh, who I had to hose down and put in all new clothes!Greenleigh enjoyed her cupcake too.

“Okay guys, I ate my cake.  Can I take a nap now?”So that was it – an amazingly wonderful perfect day.  Great friends, beautiful weather, and memories to last forever.  I know lots of people don’t do much for the first birthday, but I’m glad I went crazy on this one.  She might not remember it, but I will.  And it will always be in her scrapbook (when I finally get around to making it).  All the planning and work was so very worth it.