One more

One more birthday post and then I'm ready to move on.  Actually not really ready.  I'm kind of sad the party is over and Addilyn is now a toddler.  Her birthday week was more emotional than I thought it would be, as it was hard for me to not be sad that time moves so quickly and she changes so fast.  I just want to go back to her tiny baby days once in awhile.  But this last week we've done some really fun things.  She's walking more and has been saying a few words which is a reminder that there is so much more exciting things to come! 
Addilyn did great at her party.  Happy, social and tear free except for the minute we tried to put her in the highchair to sing to her.  Huge tears!  Thankfully she was fine once I picked her up, so we sang happy birthday to her first, put her back in her chair and she was happy eating her cake.  Although there wasn't much eating.  Mostly playing with it and feeding Chris and I.  
Is this not the saddest little face?  How dare we try to sing and give her cake? 

 
(This one cracks me up.  Like she's telling me all about it.)

I've said it before, but I really feel like a one year birthday party is more for the parents than the baby.  It was so fun to celebrate with everyone.  Addilyn is lucky to have family and friends that love her and came to celebrate her.  There is something so special about watching other people love on the thing that you love the most.  I'm grateful for all these pictures to remember such a special, fun day.  

And you're probably grateful all the birthday posts are over.  Moving on.  
Promise.

Polka Dot Birthday Party

I really enjoyed planning Addilyn's party and had so much fun making things for it.  I did so much of it slowly the last two months, which made it not stressful.  By far my favorite part of her party was the little dessert table and backdrop that I did.  

I made the tablecloth using this tutorial.  It was pretty easy and I love that I can use it again.  I found the white tablecloth on sale at Target for $8.  I bought five different paint colors, but you of course could use however many you wanted.  

For the background I had planned on cutting out a million circles, which would have been so dumb.  I thankfully found one of those huge hand punch things at Micheals, that was only $7 thanks to a 50% off coupon and SO worth it.  I just sewed them together and it really didn't take too long.  I think I cut out all the circles in less than an hour, and it didn't take more than a half hour to sew them.  I bought two packages of card stock for less than $10 and used that for all the things I made.  It was great because it was cheap and everything matched.  

I printed out Addilyn's monthly pictures, used the cardstock for backing and glued them to a ribbon to make a little banner.  Details about Addilyn's cute chalkboard print can be found here and was done by Erica at Inspired by Above.

I loved the cupcake toppers.  Chris helped me edit the picture using photoshop.  I printed them on cardstock and cut them out using little scissors, then taped them onto candy sticks.  I made the cupcakes using a box mix, but did make the frosting myself.  It was my first time using those pastry decorating bags and it really wasn't that hard.  

 

I'll have to do a post sharing more pictures about this, because I love it.  I had guests write in the board book "Guess How Much I Love You," just like we had them do when Addilyn was first born using the book "On the Night you were Born."  It will be so sweet to have that to read over and over.  

Dessert popcorn.  So good and easy.  I wanted polka dot cups but couldn't find any so I bought a package of little white circle stickers for a dollar, plus cute sticker/tags that I wrote on for the center of the cups.

 Most of our party was outside and thankfully it was a beautiful day.  I'm not sure what we would've done if it rained.  I had a few decorations for our outside.  I bought two sets of these pinwheel and puff balls on clearance for a $1 at JCPenney a long time ago and they worked perfect.  I had a little bit of the polka dot banner left to hang from the deck, plus a few balloons we had filled.  (Don't mind the crying, pantless baby.)

Addilyn's outfit details here

A friend made that chalkboard for me for one of my baby showers and it was perfect for her party.  I don't have a good picture once the food got here but I found these little chalkboard clips for cheap at Michaels that I wrote what each dish was.  (Thankfully Chris' aunts all brought a side, and we bought Italian beef and there was plenty of food!)  

I did not want to be responsible for making Addilyn's cake and happily found a perfect one at Jewel for $7.  They had a polka design and I just picked the frosting colors and it matched perfectly.  I made her little banner by cutting out triangles, writing letters with a Sharpie and sewing it together with my sewing machine. I loved it! 

The little banner on her high chair was made with cardstock.  I cut out the letters and glued them on with a glue gun because the paper was so thick.  I used a glue gun to glue the ribbon on too.  

I was really happy with how everything turned out and how the party went.  It was fun, but I'm pretty sure we won't be doing another big birthday party for many, many years!!  I still have so many pictures to go through, so expect another blog post of party pictures!

Last minute birthday prep

 
Thank you so much for all your birthday wishes for our Addilyn!  I'm just about ready for jer birthday party on Saturday and am so excited to celebrate! This week I got one of my favorite things in the mail for her party.  This adorable chalkboard print.  Sweet Erica from Inspired by Above sent it to me and I feel quite lucky for her talents and gift.  

Erica was wonderful and sweet to work with.  I sent her the information that I wanted on our poster and she quickly sent me a proof to review and I loved everything about it.  She mailed out my print and I taped it to a poster board to make it a little sturdier.  I'm so excited to display it at Addilyn's party and then hang it up in her bedroom.  
Erica is also super talented in making invitations, business cards, and all kinds of cute custom paper goods, like these bridesmaid cards and these vintage escort cards.  Check out her etsy shop here and follow her on instagram at @ibapapergoods.  Plus order any invitation before August 31 and get 20% off your purchase!

Thankful for Addilyn's birthday invitations.  I got my invitations from tiny prints, where I also got our birth announcements, Christmas cards and all the photo books I've made for Addilyn (Which I may have a problem because I have five up to month nine.  Yikes.) 
I picked these invitations and love them.  One of my favorite things about it is the back.  I also got these cute matching address labels to go with them.  I have had great experiences working with Tiny Prints.  Like the one time when I put the wrong birth weight on Addilyn's birth announcement.  They sent me a whole new set with the correct weight.  For free.  (Which had nothing to do with working with them through my blog. I called and the customer service rep didn't even know anything about our collaboration.  Just great customer service and maybe a little grace for a tired, new mama.)  

I a little impressed with the outcome of this project.  I saw these little face cupcake toppers on etsy, but they were $18 for a file to download.  Thanks to a little help from Chris and photoshop, we made our own.  They took a little while to cut out but thankfully that cute little face made it bearable.  

I'm thankful I've worked on things for her awhile because I've really enjoyed it.  Can't wait to share more after her party!  Hope you all have a great weekend!

the planning has begun

Truth be told it started a long time ago, but I think it may be acceptable now to actually be planning Addilyn's first birthday as it's only a month and a half away.  Her first birthday.  I'm in partial denial that my baby is about to be one.  I hear other moms write that and say that but for real.  Time goes by so fast. 
I never thought I wanted a big first birthday party or really much of a party at all, until I had a baby.  I want a party.  Not a huge one, but a celebration.  And truth is, it is far more for Chris and I than Addilyn.  As a matter of fact I am convinced that the parents should be the one receiving presents at first birthdays.  Or really any birthdays for that matter.  Congrats on surviving your first year of parenthood, right?  Maybe I should add that on the invitations. 
Anyway . . . so the party planning and craft making.  
A friend of mines little boy turned one a month ago so I took the opportunity to have a crafting buddy and we made this polka dot tablecloth and a wreath like this together.  

I'm almost done with her invitation.  Let me tell you, taking these pictures was not pretty.  There truly were only five somewhat acceptable pictures of the 100 we took.  Which is sad because Addilyn smiles all the time, yet impossible to catch on camera.  
I've used Tiny Prints for her birth announcements and our Christmas cards and am happy to use them again. There are so many options and it's so hard for me to make a final decision.  I can't decide between this, this, or this one.  I love the theme of bright colors and polka dots, so any of those would be perfect. 
Let the indecisiveness begin. 

My goal is to have a photobook for months 0-3, 3-6 and 3-9 done to have out at her party.  I just finished months 0-3.  While it took me forever, their photobooks makes it really easy to use.  With idea pages, cute backgrounds and a millions options.  (Which is part of why it takes me so long.)  I used Shutterfly to make a pregnancy photobook, and one of Addilyn's birth and first week.  I see an abundance of these books in our future.  
I want to make Addilyn a onesie like this and cupcake toppers like these.  The ideas and projects I could do are somewhat overwhelming, so the goal is to make things as long as it stay enjoyable to me!  Time to start using nap time for projects!