Happy Birthday Party, Hallie!

Last Saturday we celebrated Hallie's birthday. We wanted everyone to be able to make it (on both sides of the family) and Saturday just seemed to work best for everyone. It was only a couple days before her real birthday (TODAY!!) it made today a lot less stressful, and made it possible to have a big shindig on Saturday.

I might have gone a little overboard, but hey, it's my first child's first birthday! I had to go all out. Especially since I have all the resources that could help me out here.

My family showed up on Wednesday/Thursday and helped me with everything. It was so awesome to have them here and to help. Like I said before, I went a little overboard on the planning, but it turned out so beautiful I was so happy.

First things first was invitations. My hubby bought me a bamboo pad for my birthday, and it was a huge help in designing the invitation. I may have ripped the original design off someone else.... but I designed and made 100 percent of it. Here it is:

It was so fun to make. I'm so happy I decided to start planning her party so early or I would have been scrambling at the last minute.

After invites, we called our good friend/neighbor down the street (Wayne) who owns a couple ponies. He loves to have them out with kids and such. So just a simple..

"Hey Wayne are you available to bring your ponies by Saturday the 23rd?"
"Yup I'm available!"

And that was that. Ponies for Hallie's party.

Of course I had to have an amazing cake. There are so many cool ideas out there, and let's face it cakes have to be awesome. Good thing I have connections. Really close connections. My sister-in-law Tiana is so talented. She's done everything; weddings, birthdays, umm.. what else do you need cakes for? She's probably done it. She was so awesome to work with. I'm so happy she did it. She even mentioned to me it was her favorite cake to make. Which to me is awesome. I must have amazing taste. haha. I picked a cake I found on the internet. Pinned it. Sent it over to Tiana. Drew a picture with color schemes, and voila! Tiana made magic!

I also found a lady on Etsy who makes the cutest cake toppers. Her store is called RusticHorseShoe (Rena) and I HIGHLY recommend her. I gave her the color scheme and some ideas I had and let her wild with her creative awesomeness. I was so pleased. She got it to me in a timely manner (of course I thought of it 2-3 weeks early, which helps) and she was great to communicate with.

Cake+Topper=  MOST AWESOME CAKE EVER!

Jordan & Jordan went to pick up tables at Tiana's house and when they got back they just looked at me and said, "You are going to love that cake!!"

Which I did, and everyone else did too. :)

I had so many decorating ideas (no thanks to Pinterest you created a monster out of me!!) but I had to narrow down what I really wanted. Jordan and I are poor.. so I had to make most of everything myself.. in a cheap way. I was buying plates at Target (which they had the 2 color of plates I was planning Hallie's party with.. so cool) and I saw these flag banners which I thought were sooo cute! But.. they didn't have the color scheme I wanted so I thought I'd look around more. I saw some at Joanne's but it was over 30 buck and still not the color scheme I wanted. Plus I wanted Hallie's name on the banner. I decided to make it. Jordan was essential to making this happen, he cut all the cardboard out for me. I told him the size and he cut them all out and drilled holes so I could string the banner together. Yay for free boxes. I found the perfect color of scrapbook paper at walmart, 50 pages for 4 dollars! Heck yeah! And then the lettered paper from Micheals which ended up being about 10.

Tiana was also very essential in this part of the process because she has this wonderful tool called a cricket (dont even know if that is spelled right) and it pretty much cuts out whatever you want. So I had all my letters cut by a fancy machine. wahoo. It turned out awesome.

I also had to make Hallie a birthday dress. I saw this dress on pinterest that was to die for, but it wasn't the right size, and I wanted it in her party colors. I pretty much designed the dress myself and figured everything out, and Jordan's mom helped me with the top of the dress to make sure it fit Hallie really well for her big day. It turned out really cute. I was so pleased. She is wearing it for pictures tomorrow!

The last things were tables/chairs/center pieces/balloons. Can I just thank my family so much for helping me with making all the flowers for the centerpieces (I made them out if napkins!!) and for Jordan S., Jordan C., Erin, Kaylie, and Sean for blowing up/hanging/stringing all the balloons. It was a vision that I had that they made come to life! I am so grateful. It was so cool looking. I wish the pictures justified how cool it was. And I would like to thank Joann's for having an amazing sale on tulle. 11 yards for 8 bucks! ya!

Of course the actual party was fun. I felt like a chicken with my head cut off the whole time, but it was worth it. The weather was hot and nice, the food was fabulous, everyone that came contributed a little, and that was so helpful. Thanks everyone! Jordan grilled (which we ran out of propane half way through!! The only bad thing to happen during the party...) the kids rode the ponies all over the yard, we talked, laughed, had cake, and played CORNHOLE! If you don't know this game.. you need to it's awesome!

Presents were so fun.. she hauled! Maya and Tristan opened most of them... haha.. but it was so fun. Hallie opened what she could, and was so excited for all the presents. She has not touched any of her old toys since. haha. She got clothes, foam letters, a baby Stella w/ outfit, a push stroller and some books from Jordan and I. She also got a school bus (probably her most favorite toy she got), another baby, clothes, books, a sound puzzle, a piggy bank (she can already put the coins in herself!!) a sit/stand walker from my parents, Toy Story, more clothes, dresses, small singing doggie with a blanket, and probably more I cannot think of. As I said, she hasn't played with her old toys since. She loves them all.

Hallie was a little bit of a bear, but only because she is getting 5 TEETH RIGHT NOW! oh man the pain that girl must be in, but she was a trooper. Especially when we brought out the cake. She looked at us.. like I can really have this? And dove right in. Her hair looks funny because she pulled out her bows.. of course... but I'm glad she did because she was touching her hair with cake all in her hands so it would have been a ruined bow.

 (Don't you be eyein my cake....bwahaha).

After the cake we filled up her little pool and stuck her in it. She splashed and had a blast. She loves to be naked, so she thought it was awesome.

After swimming/bath in the yard we put her in her jammies and let her play with some of the toys she got, and then gave everyone kisses and headed off to bed.

The party was such a blast and I had so much fun planning it. Thanks to everyone who contirbuted. Jordan and I are so thankful for you! And most importantly...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HALLIE BEAR!