Happy Birthday Alice!

It was Alice's first birthday party yesterday! Her birthday isn't until Tuesday, but we wanted to have her party on a weekend, and that was the last weekend in August. 

This was her invitation, which is a poor knock off of the beautiful invitations seen on this blog. 

Birthday Girl. I had that bow made at a local flower shop for $2.00

My mom hung balloons from the trees

The porch, all decked out for Alice's birthday

A rainbow of fruit tray and rainbow roses!

Kool-Aid Magic Punch. I made ice cubes out of every color of the rainbow and  let everyone choose their flavors. As the cubes melted, the flavor of the drink changed!

The whole food table. Under the towel are turkey sandwiches.

I dipped waffle bowls in pink tinted white chocolate and dipped them in rainbow nonpareils. Birthday Cake Oreo's got the same treatment but with  rainbow colored white chocolate. I also made Fruity Pebbles treats! My friend Lisa who helped set up came up with the idea of putting the pinwheels in the birthday hats.

I put mini-daisies in baby food jars decorated with rainbow ribbon. Unfortunately, I forgot to put water in them, so they shriveled up :(

Baby's breath and mini daisies by the table with the gift bags. We had crazy straws, rainbow crayons, stickers, rainbow notebooks, punch balloons and kazoos! 

I made a banner of faces, one for each month of Alice's life, plus the day she was born, and at her Daddy's request, her first ever face picture (marked "-1"). This banner would have been much more effective if her face had actually changed in 12 months! 

Alice's Number 1 cake. I had big plans for this cake involving every color of icing, that were happily abandoned when time got short. Also, it was so hot out that the homemade buttercream melted within 5 seconds of the piping bag being in my hand. Luckily, I had some nonpareils left over from the ice cream bowls that I used.

The inside of the big "1" cake. Was a little time intensive, but not hard to do.

Here is Alice's smash cake! I baked six thin cakes in a small square pan, and then I used the largest circle cookie cutter from the Wilton circle cookie cutter pack to make them round. I wanted everyone to see the colors, so I only iced between the layers. 

The whole set-up. I bought the high-chair from Craigslist for 10 dollars, then I made the banner out of felt, glue and ribbon. It was super easy (I freehand cut out the letters). Then we blew up balloons and tied them to the side, although we took them down before we put Allie in the chair because the wind was too crazy! I also hung tissue paper balls (that I made from a kit from Party City) from the climbing tree in the yard.

Alice wasn't sure what to do with the cake at first! We tried to light the candle, but it was too windy. Also, you can see better here the plate that her cake is on. The plate is Sesame Street and was mine as a kid (like I said, my Mom saves EVERYTHING!)  It has the alphabet around the edge in rainbow colors and was a perfect addition to the party (my mom's idea at the very last minute!)

Mommy had to help her smash the cake a little

So I'm SUPPOSED to use my hands?

Mmm! This tastes pretty good!

This is way easier! Alice ate her cake this way for the rest of the time! 

Cleanup after the cake

Alice loved opening her presents! She even squealed when she opened up clothes! Here she is on the couch that my Dad and Step-mom got her, meeting her Rody (a gift from her Great-Grandma)

It was a long, fun day!