First Birthday Party

I love parties! I love to go to parties! I love to throw them! I think there are many things to celebrate, not only birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas and Easter. Therefore I now dedicated my Friday posts to parties: to creative party invitations, to easy-to-make party food, to party decorations that make all the difference... I hope you feel inspired by the festive atmosphere on Fridays and celebrate many small and big events.

It was my little one’s birthday on Tuesday and since I wasn’t allowed to post on the day, I now want to share some details of her first party.

What’s the deal with throwing parties for such little ones, you might ask? While I generally agree with you that the birthday girl (or boy) won’t fully understand what is going on, I still think he or she will feel that something special is happening and that he or she gets extra love and attention on the day.

My decorating scheme – if you can call it a scheme – all started with this wind mill which I found at a a 1-Euro-store. I loved the colours and I loved the nostalgic appeal and I loved the polka dots (especially since we used to call our little one dotty, when I was pregnant with her)

For an extra festive look and a splash of colour I whipped this garland up from paper scraps. The method is the same I used for the doyleys garland here. I just punched circles out of the scrap cardboard and then sew them together with my sewing machine. 10 minutes max for 10 meters of garland and it costs nothing.

The biggest hit for my little one were the balloon, however. I just scattered a few around the apartment and she pointed at them whenever she saw one. Played with them longer than with any of her new toys. Learnt that they explode when you bite into them. Or pinch them really hard. So much fun and so pretty!

And because everything was so dotty, her new baby doll Stella also put on her dotted dress. It is one of the lot I found in the amazing second-hand shop. Doesn’t she look like a mini party girl ;-)

I decided to keep the number of guests very small. Actually I just invited by best friend and her daughter, who is just 9 months older than my little one. The girls know each other very well – because their mamas love to hang out together ;-) – and my little one is always so impressed what the bigger girl can do, plus she loves to take care of my little one. They are just adorable together.

This is how the birthday table looked.

Of course there is the golden birthday plate (which - after much research- I found here)...

... there is the first birthday candle (of many more to come) in my old candle rings...

... and there are very yummy cherry muffins made after the recipe I found at one of my favourite food blogs Schöner Tag noch. They were delicious! Not too dense, not too fluffy. Not too fruity, not too cinnamon-y. Just perfect! And so easy to make – check it out!

I have been to a couple of first birthday parties lately and some of them were a bit over the top for my taste: too many kids, too many adults, too fancy cakes, too many presents, too much action for the birthday baby – because they are still babies even if they turned one. Therefore I am very happy with my little one’s first birthday party – good food and good friends plus lots of time for playing, dancing and cuddling. I hope my little one will agree with me someday and not complain that she hadn’t had a fancy cake ;-)