Kira's First Birthday Party

We celebrated Kira's first birthday this past weekend with family and friends.  The theme that I chose for her was "Bright As the Sun".  Pat and I moved to Seattle right after Quinn was born, and since then we've teased that because there's not much sun in the sky a lot of the year around here, my kids have to fill that role for me.  And that they do.

(made by Pat)

I love the creative process of party planning (with the help of my trusty go to website Kara's Party Ideas). More specifically, I love the crafting that takes place prior to the party.  Anyway, I was busy placing the little crafts that I had made up until the last minute and didn't shoot any photos of the decor myself.  Luckily Will snapped a few for us (and did so with artistry that I never could have).  What would we do without him, seriously?    

My Dad made those cute little white-picket-fence planter boxes and cut suns out of wood for me.  I then decorated the suns with different scrapbook paper on each ray.  They were pretty cute but I didn't pack them well, and they basically all melted together on the drive from Seattle to Walla Walla.  Ugh.  As long as people didn't look too carefully, they worked.

Gift/party favor table  

If you look carefully, you can kind of see how the suns were decorated here.  I had a lot of fun sewing bunting for this party.  I'd hang some in every room of our house if Pat would let me.  It's just so bright and fun.

"Our Little Sunshine" quiz.  We created a little quiz for Quinn's party and I thought it'd be fun to do the same for Kira.  I'll post the quiz later this week for those who couldn't be at the party and/or who didn't have a chance to see it while at the party.  It's mainly a chance for Pat to try and be funny.  I always love that.

The scrapbook table.  Shutterfly saved me this year (thanks for the advice, Shelby) because I hadn't prepared ANYTHING for Kira until about two weeks before her birthday.  I was pleased with how this turned out given the time I was able to put into it.

If you want to see the scrapbook, this should get you to it.

Click here to view this photo book larger

The new way to make a photo album: photo books by Shutterfly.

The cake.  I about died of cuteness overload when I picked this up.  Thank you for the cake shop recommendation, Erin.  It was perfect!

Food table pre-food.  You can sort of see a sun in the middle of this table.  Well, you actually can't really see it at all but this is the best semi-shot of the fabric suns that I made, and I loved how they turned out (as long as you didn't look too closely, of course).

Rainbow fruit kabobs.  These took about as much time to make as Kira's scrapbook (not really), but it was ridiculous.  Totally worth it, though.

And my final project for Kira's party was her tutu.  Due to its fullness and scratchiness, that thing was the most uncomfortable item of clothing I've ever forced her to wear.  But since I made it, she had to wear it (for a little while at least)!  She totally rocked that tutu.

There was some water play for the kids (and Pat).  This is Pat's wardrobe version of a mullet.  Button-up on top, swimsuit on the bottom.  Speaking of mullets, there's a bit of talk about how Kira's hair is growing in.  It's a total mullet so far, poor girl.  I can't imagine cutting it at this point, though.  We'll give it more time (a few years) and see what happens.

See her running?  Yah, she tries to do that now.  It's not quite to a run, but it won't be long.  Slow down, Kira!

And cornhole for the adults (and kids according to this pic).  If you haven't played this game, do yourself a favor and play it immediately.  So fun.  So addicting.

Kira would have been perfectly happy with friends, family, and water play.  But what party is complete without some cake?

Here she is first digging into her smash cake.  

She's not sure what to think of this.

She seemed to enjoy how it felt on her fingers.  

But after letting her manipulate that cake for a while without ever even taking a bite, I put a little frosting on her lips to get her started.  She made a sour face and spit it out.

What kid doesn't like cake?  I was shocked.  She managed to get plenty messy without ever actually consuming any of her cake though, wouldn't you say?

Poor undesired cake.  Good thing her buddy Cooper kept sneaking bites throughout the afternoon.  

Photo proof that I put her in a more comfortable skirt post cake-eating.  See, I'm not that mean.  Also, for the literate crowd, there was no mistaking who the birthday girl was.  What can I say, I got a little desperate for a birthday shirt days before the party.  

She didn't care much for the gift-opening either, but this was more expected.  Luckily Quinn swooped in a saved the day by volunteering to take over the unwrapping portion of the party.  Shocking, I know.  

And this final photo is to document that Kira needed 3 outfit changes over the course of her 3 hour party.  This was unplanned.   Who knew birthday parties were so messy?

Thank you so much to everyone who celebrated with us.  We are so grateful and had a wonderful time!

Now, who has a party they'll let me plan (craft for)?  I'm not allowed to do any more of those around here for a while.