Tag Archives: First Birthday Party

30Mar 2015

The Cake Smash That Wasn’t

First birthday cake smash photos are just the cutest! Little hands and smiles covered in frosting just melts my heart. As Jellybean’s birthday approached I got increasingly excited at the idea of her cake smash. On her birthday my parents entertained Jellybean while I got to baking. I made the vanilla cake and pink buttercream frosting {from scratch} and anxiously awaited the hubby getting home from work so we could sing to the birthday girl and then watch Jellybean get her cake smash on.

I envisioned how cute Jellybean would look covered in pink frosting. I hoped I would snap a really cute photo that could be used on her birthday ‘thank you’ cards. The camera was set out on the table, charged and ready to go!

We took some ‘practice’ shots of Jellybean with her princess birthday hat on while she ate her dinner.

The hubby, my parents and my husband’s parent (via Skype) sang ‘Happy Birthday’ and Jellybean just looked at us with that little furrow brow she has when she’s unsure of what’s happening. With the cake in front of her I stepped back to snap what one would only assume would be an adorable face and then …

We realized she didn’t like the cake. No, it wasn’t that she didn’t like the cake, but instead she was afraid … Yup, completely terrified of the cake! We all started pontificating what might be the matter. She was tired, wasn’t hungry, and so on. And while we discussed her face said it all, “someone to make that cake disappear … STAT!

Completely baffled, we took the cake away, put her on the floor with the cake and then my baby girl cried. It’s my cake and I’ll cry if I want to! It was hard not to laugh at how much she most certainly did NOT like the cake. For a child who has never shown any signs of fear, is was a strange sight!!! All I can think when I see this picture is ‘no one puts baby {and a cake} in the corner”. Tee hee hee =)

We tried again a few days later at her winter ONEderland birthday party and met with similar results. A little scrunched up face, followed by some crying and no cake smash.

Despite there being no cake smash for Jellybean’s 1st birthday; we did get one hilarious story to tell over and over again. I’m sure we will embarrass her at some point when we whip out these photos in front of her friends, or better yet a future boyfriend hahahaha {pending Daddy’s approval for her to date, of course}.

Anyone else’s baby not like cake?!

22Jan 2013

One Year in a Flash – Birthday Party

by Nicole ⋅ 9 Comments

My friend Kia threw her son a first birthday party a few weeks back. The party was decked out with all sorts of details and DIY projects. As co-owner of Baker’s Bliss she also made all her own cupcakes for the party! Party details as told by Kia…

For my son’s 1st Birthday I wanted to do something different and something fun. Hopefully, along the lines of cost effective as well. I looked through a variety of themes of things to do and most of them felt too kiddy. As every parent knows the first birthday party is more for the adults than the kids and so I wanted a fun theme that all ages could enjoy. I searched the internet high and low and ultimately fell in love with the posts I had seen from different moms who had decided on the “one year in a flash” theme.

I didn’t have a lot of time to put the party together being a full time mom of 2 plus my full time job left me with not that much time to put the grandiose party on that I wanted too. However, my bestie and business partner Rebecca was in town to save the day. And so began the party planning….

First, I made a list of what I wanted to do. It was hard to come up with this list because I really wanted to do all the ideas I had seen on the internet. They ranged from photo booths and custom chalkboards to custom banners and cupcake stands. All of which I thought was ridiculously creative and cute, but I had to be realistic. I really had about 3 days and unlike most of the other party planners I had intended on making my own cupcakes because that’s just what I do! So these are the things I decided I was going to do for the party.

Decorations:

Custom Banner (What better way to say you are 1 then a year of pictures to remind you)
Custom Cupcake Toppers
High Chair Banner
Balloon Display
Photo Booth
Custom Thank you Cards
Custom Water Bottles

Food:

Dessert Table complete with custom chocolate covered Oreos in the theme colors and “camera” sugar cookies.
Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Buttercream
Vanilla Bean cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Buttercream
Pigs in a blanket for the kids
Veggie Tray
Fried Chicken
Queso Dip
Chips

This all seemed pretty overwhelming so I ended up ditching the Photo Booth. I simply just didn’t have the time or the energy given the list of other things that had to get accomplished.

For the Banner, Thank You Cards and Cake Toppers I needed photos! It was already Wednesday and the party was Saturday so I had to come up with the photo digging through all my digital memorabilia over the last year and get them printed and ready really by Thursday. CVS photo online to the rescue! I uploaded the pictures and picked them up at the CVS down the street from me the next morning and it was only .19 cents a picture! This really came out very cost effective since in addition to the 12 pictures I needed 24 cupcake toppers and 20 thank you cards.

Here’s how the banner came out:

Here are the Thank You Cards:

And the Cupcake Toppers:

Here’s how the dessert table turned out:

You can see my nice balloon display courtesy of Party City.

Admittedly, most of the food items I purchased them from the local super market. The Fried Chicken was purchased the hubby and then he made the veggie tray and queso dip. I made the pigs in a blanket and here is what the food table looked like. The table display was done by my friend Monique!

The chocolate covered Oreos were a big hit and proudly displayed on the right and the custom water bottles on the left. After all the work it all turned out great. We all had an amazing time. I hope you enjoy the pictures and the ideas. It was a great party!

Check out the Baker’s Bliss website or like them on Facebook. Thank you Kia for stopping by and sharing your party tidbits with us!!

Happy Party Planning!