Charlotte's Birthday Party

I love parties. I love throwing parties. I love making all the goodies that go along. And I absolutely love how special it makes my kids feel. So yes, I might be a little over the top. And yes, I probably put too much time and effort into a single event. But, my kids will look back at this and see some physical evidence that I do care enough to do all that for them. There, now you can look at the rest of the blog and not judge me. :]

We combined a going away party for with Charlotte's party, that way we could invite more of our friends, even if they didn't have kids.


Michael's sister, Brenda, and her husband Gavin came for the weekend. Michael's parents also came early, around lunch time or so. That meant I had tons of helpers! Thank goodness for that.

I had my very own balloon blower uppers. 

Craig served as a baby entertainer. 

And Charlotte wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty and help too! She loves sweeping and carrying the broom all around. 

The theme was elephants. The cake was divine. I made cupcakes, my great grandma's chocolate recipe. And the actual cake was 3 layers. The bottom two were from scratch vanilla with cream cheese fruit dip and blueberry pie filling between layers. The top layer, Charlotte's cake, was banana bread, since bananas are her absolute favorite. I iced the bottom with white chocolate buttercream and the top with cool whip (less sugar but still enough fun for her birthday). Then I topped all that with some baby carnations. It turned out fantastic! It was incredibly difficult to frost the cake the way I did, but the results were worth it. We also had white chocolate dipped Oreos, fruit pizzas, soft sugar cookies, cake balls dipped in raspberry dark chocolate, and a snack tray with pepperoni, ham, cheese, and crackers. I did apple juice boxes for the kiddos and a variety of specialty sodas for the big kids.

Some finishing ribbons on the top tier. This is the cool whip portion, which looked a lot more white than the buttercream. 

Kitchen counter display. The baby food jars in front are filled with M & M's and are party favors. 

The final product! I don't think this cake could have turned out any better! 

My (almost) famous soft sugar cookies. I used an icing recipe that hardens like royal icing but tastes delicious! 

You gotta have chocolate covered Oreos!

I found a fun website that all sorts of birthday printables. Pink, grey, and elephants, it was meant to be!

The kitchen table display. And that's my friend Jennifer. :]

This is probably my second favorite decoration (my favorite is the elephant and streamer banner hung above the couch). The tulle in the background is actually a tutu that Charlotte wore on the actual day of her birthday. 

Here are those cute juice boxes! And as favors for the kids, we had a puppy adoption. 

 We had a blast! Tons of people showed up. Almost all the food got eaten. Charlotte loved her presents! She received books, stuffed animals, clothes, toys, and a rocking horse from her mom and dad. That was her favorite, thank goodness! As a parent I always try and guess what my kids would like the most and what would actually maintain their attention for a long period of time. I hope I'm not alone in this. And this task is especially hard for the younger ones who can't voice what they really want. Well sure enough a horse did the trick!

We blew up almost 70 balloons. They were everywhere. Ivan thought it was so cool to frizz Charlotte's hair like this!

There's that cute banner in the background! And I made a photo collage in the shape of a "1" with only pictures of Charlotte. That was so fun to see tons of pictures of her throughout her first year. 

Cake time!

She didn't really understand that there was cake under all the cool whip. She just kept licking off the icing without taking any cake. Then she started playing it like a drum. 

So I snuck in there with a fork and pried off a piece of cake for her to eat. That's one big bite!

I think she likes it!

That's her signing "all done."

While opening presents, Charlotte just kept going back to the horse and playing with its mouth. 

Not quite sure what to think of that puppy, although she did sleep with it that night. 

Shortly after this was taken, Charlotte put her feet on the back of the horse and stood up on it while rocking it. Quite the show girl already! Notice the change in hairbows? A friend gave Charlotte that beautiful new feather one and it was the exact color of her outfit. It must be fate!