a cupcake party

i saw this super cute idea for a cupcake party (also for a little girl named kate) and knew that that should be the theme for my little kate's party! i found a fabulous roll of black & white damask wrapping paper in the christmas gift wrap section of hobby lobby. i paired the b/w damask with splashes of hot pink and glitter for a fun girly first birthday party.

invite: with envelope made from wrapping paper.(totally copied the wording from the other kate's birthday invites. it was just too cute.)

high chair banner: letters cut from a sheet of pink glittered foam & hot glued to black felt triangles. strung on hot pink cording.

picture banner: pictures of kate from 1 day to 12 months hung on hot pink beaded garland (found in target's christmas section).

smash cake: a large chocolate cupcake frosted with hot pink icing {using a 1M cake tip} on a gorgeous little silver dish i found in my grandma's things earlier in the day. it made a perfect little cupcake stand.

cake table: the birthday cake was made from wilton's giant cupcake pan using this recipe for the frosting (my favorite- tastes great & pipes beautifully!) and this technique for the base of the cake. the cupcake pops are via bakerella (this time i used a oreo/cream cheese mixture instead of cake/frosting) displayed in cute little buckets i found at hobby lobby. somehow i missed getting a picture of the finished table but at party time the punch bowl was filled with a raspberry sherbet & sprite for a pink drink. in the very corner of the picture you can catch a glimpse of the hot pink dinner plates & damask cake plates.

here are some more pictures of our day. it was a sweet little celebration of our sweet baby kate!

 

 

 

 

one.

our sweet baby kate is one today

   

she is joy and light and promise and surprise and laughter and love.

we adore God for choosing us to love and care for her during our time on earth.

happy birthday kate!

one year ago.

a year ago today was our last day as a family of 3.
our home was filled with the sweet excitement of meeting our new baby girl.

a panda & a dinosaur

halloween 2009.

a dinosaur in the making...

trying out the scare factor on baby sister.

taking a little sewing break for a bedtime story.

costume time!

at faulkner's ranch for daddy's work party.

corn cannon

gourmet s'mores

it was a happy halloween!

halloween felt flower

i didn't buy my kids any halloween clothes this year so i made my little doll an accessory this morning to add a little orange to her white & black for halloween.

a sweet little felt peony flower using this quick and easy tutorial. (special thanks to my sister for buying too much felt & blessing me with it!)
 

   

i attached it to a pin so i can swap it out between a hat, headband, or clothes. she likes it!

gender neutral baby shower: owl theme

my sweet sis-in-law is pregnant with baby unruh... coming late november! alli and i hosted a baby shower for april with an owl theme.

pictures of max and april in felt owl frames ($2 martha stewart kit at big lots)

along with the cake our brunch menu was fruit salad, mini muffins, sausage breakfast casserole, and little smokies wrapped in crescent roll

instead of a game we did custom iron-on onesies for the baby. this picture is a little blurry but it says "MAX + APRIL = me". we also had everyone add a little heart iron-on on the bum and write their name on the heart so that when mom and dad are dressing the baby in these cute things, they will know who created each one.(this one is from april's sister... soon to be aunt karen)

onesies and iron-on's can get expensive- especially since we were planning for about 25 shower guests. a couple of months before, i started collecting packages of onesies at joanns and michaels with my weekly 50% off coupons. i also used a coupon at michaels and bought package of iron-on transfer paper for $6. i searched  google images to find fun gender-neutral pictures to decorate the onesies. some, like the one here, are just text that i typed in a word document. i suggest using fun & unique fonts. i love collecting fonts and there are some great available online. my favorite fonts always come from dafont.com  i printed the images from my home printer onto the special paper and cut them out for shower guests to choose their favorite!

racecar party

we took a road trip to florida to help caden celebrate his THIRD birthday. it was tons of fun (minus the 16 hours in the car-- each way. just ask kate.)

the birthday boy:

 i made his shirt using fabric & wonder under. just iron your fabric to one side of the wonder under. cut out the shape. peel the backing off the other side. iron the shape to your shirt. stitch around the shape and you have a super cute, custom piece!

the details:

a racing pennant from ebay with some letters (all star font) printed off the computer, cut out and taped to the pennant for a birthday banner.

erin picked up some disney cars movie party blowers from walmart. she created her own "happy birthday caden" labels and stuck them over the cars decoration. we peeled high school musical stickers off cheer megaphones from the dollar tree for instant traffic cones.

 

decorate your own pinata bags-- stickers from oriental trading co

the eats:

my sister made this awesome race track cake. the race track and checkerboard pattern on the side are fondant. the grass is a delicious buttercream frosting tinted green and piped with a grass cake tip.

                  

stop light jell-o jigglers - chocolate car pretzel rods - street scene table scape

happy birthday sweet caden!