First Birthday Event

Before I had a child, I was one of those people that said "If I ever have kids, I am not having a big birthday party with a bunch of people. It's overwhelming for the child, especially when they're really little."

And then I had a little girl who I want to shower with all the love and gifts in the world. And how could I not throw a birthday party in her honor? So, I started planning Molly Ruth's first birthday right after Christmas. Seriously. My inspiration came from a smocked dress with sweet little zoo animals on it. Our theme was zoo animals, but in sweet pastels (not a zoo safari theme). I found party supplies (cups, plates, napkins,etc.) online in the color theme I wanted on Birthday Direct's website.

Naturally, we wanted to invite all of our family, friends, and neighbors, which totaled 35 or so invitations. A little bit more than the 10-15 invitations I had originally imagined. When we went to the post office to pick out the stamps for the invitations, I asked the lady working there how many stamps were on a sheet. She answered with "25." And after pausing to think for a second, I said "Ok, we'll need two sheets then." To which she replied, "Oh, so you're having a first birthay event."

So, we had a wonderful first birthday event for Miss Molly Ruth on the Saturday after her birthday...

Regretfully, I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked because I was so busy making sure all the decorations were just right and visiting with our guests. I think that next year I will designate someone with photography skills as the official photographer so I can make sure to have plenty of pictures! This was the only picture I got of the full tablescape...

We had pink ribbon streamers hanging off of the chandelier that were anchored with different white zoo animals. I found the zoo animals in the $1 bin at Target and had Matt spray paint them white. Cheap, easy, and oh so cute!

Her birthday cake had a monkey on top with little pink glasses on. Then, each tier had silhouettes of the animals that were on the plates and napkins. And let me tell you, the cake tasted even better than it looked, if you can believe it! We used a local bakery called 'Tis So Sweet and I highly recommend them if you are in the Spring Hill area.

The picture above is MR with our good friends Tali and Will. Thank you Tali for MR's Build-A-Bear named Jewel (that had its own pair of glasses!) So sweet and thoughtful.

I can't get enough of those little curls!

Now that I'm a stay at home mom, I've put pressure on myself to be more crafty. So, I made most of the birthday decorations. I loved how this picture display of the first year of her life turned out:

I also made a ribbon skirt for her highchair (I got the idea from Pinterest and saw a similar one for sale on Etsy for $30!) It cost around $5 for me to make mine and it turned out great!

Below are my Auntie KK (who looks thrilled to be having her picture taken, might I add), Grandma Marsh (who Molly calls "Maaaaa"), and my cousin Allie (who is MR's godmother).

Here are Matt and Molly with our niece, Sara, and her brand new baby boy, Mason:

My sweet cousin, Sarah, holding my sweet niece, Mallie Kate.

Molly Ruth had a blast opening presents..

and enjoyed the attention as we sang to her...

She was a little apprehensive to dig into her smash cake...

but caught on pretty quickly!

More family pics with cousin Tara (expecting a baby girl in May) and her husband, Jeff, Paul and Hil and Mallie Kate, and us...

Lastly, here are the party favors:

A local lady made these and the detail on them was amazing. They also tasted reeeeally good.

Thank you to everyone who came out and celebrated with us! It meant so much to us and we look forward to the next birthday event! :)