You already heard about the party that didn’t happen on December 11. Here is the party that did happen, on December 17, six days after the originally scheduled party, also known as six days closer to Christmas. At that point, I couldn’t prolong Christmas decorations any further. Although we had agreed to forego a tree (curious toddler who would pull it down, not enough space for tree and party guests, out of town for an entire week at Christmas — forget it), I had to haul out the holly, and it needed to agree with a pink-themed birthday party. Here’s what materialized:

Trader Joe’s eucalyptus wreath for $12. (Try not to be shocked, but the pink bow was all me. I would have preferred ribbon with wire in it that would look more lively and less limp, but I had to use what I had in the house while Eleanora was napping.)

Champagne-colored tinsel trees from Target, eight bucks a pop. Pink bows on top. I searched high and low for a pink poinsettia before finding that one at Trader Joe’s.

Buffet of pink candy. Believe it or not, I probably spent the most money here. Ten packages of pink gumballs, eight pounds of jelly beans, two pounds of M&Ms, ten sticks of rock candy, six Whirly pops, seven packages of Ghirardelli raspberry chocolate squares, 144 watermelon Jolly Ranchers, eight bags of FaveReds Starbursts, 12 Smarties candy canes, and 19 giant Pixy Stix. I also had to buy all of those glass containers except for one, which was a Kate Spade flower vase from our wedding registry. (Thanks again, Kuciapinskis!)

Don’t tell anyone, but I returned five of the glass containers, fifteen giant Pixy Stix, and some unused plates and favor bags after the party was over, and I got $70 back. 😀

I found the pink damask tablecloth on Amazon.

We kept it simple by ordering pizza and offering self-serve drinks.

I froze Eleanora’s “smash cake” from the originally scheduled party the weekend before…

… but re-ordered the main cake, which was strawberry with strawberry cream cheese frosting. Our wedding cake was also strawberry. 🙂

Eleanora was tutueady with a t-shirt that boasted her Blabla doll, which was featured on both the cake and the invitation…

… and here is my favorite part, the invitation. I designed it in collaboration with the very talented Heather Ritchie (a Lexingtonienne herself), owner of Grey Ink. I couldn’t have been more thrilled with how it turned out, and Heather was amazing to work with. If you have any invitation or stationery needs, I cannot say enough nice things about Heather and Grey Ink (full disclosure: I am NOT compensated in any way!). The front featured the party details with Lulu, Eleanora’s Blabla doll, acting as Vanna White…

… while the back showed our month-by-month photos of Eleanora’s first year with Lulu (and a guest appearance by Lovebug, Cousin Cooper’s Blabla, which we borrowed for the six-month photo while in Lexington for Eleanora’s baptism in June). Heather also made me thank-you notes and return address labels to match.

Obviously Lulu was in attendance at the birthday party, along with a few dates.

And here is the birthday girl eagerly awaiting her guests. (Balloons were added about 30 minutes later – many thanks to Uncle Tim for picking them up!)

Once the guests arrived, I put my photographer hat away and didn’t get any more photos (New Year’s resolution: be better about that), so you’ll have to trust me that it was a rager. In all 400 square feet of our living room. I did, however, capture the birthday girl with her smash cake:

And I also snapped this one of Cousin Liam, who was super psyched to have eaten a giant Whirly pop.

His mother, my sister-in-law Casey, was less than thrilled about having her two-year-old on a sugar bender, but happily gave kisses to the birthday girl.

And you know how I am. I had to make a playlist of handpicked party songs to last three hours so there wouldn’t be any repeats. We played the music through our Apple TV accompanied by a montage of photos from Eleanora’s first year. Here are some of my favorites from the playlist I called, “EBD Birthday #1”:

• P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) – Michael Jackson
• The Best of What’s Around – Pickin’ On Series bluegrass cover of Dave Matthews Band
• Material Girl – Madonna
• Birthday – The Beatles
• Get Happy – Judy Garland
• Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – Cyndi Lauper
• I Was Made For Sunny Days – The Weepies
• Sweet Child o’ Mine – Pickin’ On Series bluegrass cover of Guns’n’Roses
• Heart-Shaped Box – Little Roy reggae cover of Nirvana
• On the Street Where You Live* – Harry Connick, Jr.

*Hubba Bubba has sung this one to Eleanora since before she was born. 🙂

Whew! First child’s first birthday party? CHECK.

xoxo,