Princess Ella turns One!

This past weekend (as in Sunday, yes I am just now blogging on Wednesday), my best friend Hope's little girl, Ella Marie turned one! I feel like we were just celebrating Ella's impending arrival at Hope's baby shower, so I could hardly believe when Hope texted me a few months ago and said "let's start planning Ella's party".

Hope had already chosen a precious chalkboard-print style invitation with pink and mint colors and a cupcake/princess theme, which naturally meant we needed to add some gold glitter in the mix too. After a few Saturday's of making fake cupcakes (tutorial here) for the tables, spray-painting some mason jars & making a three-tier cupcake server (tutorial here) - I am super pumped with how well everything turned out and Ella seemed to have a great time being celebrated!

Hope's sister-in-law Elizabeth made some fun memory boards with pictures that looked great on the mantle in the clubhouse!

Hope's super crafty mom, Mrs. Nell made Ella's tutu and a precious tutu and cover for the high chair too.

we were totally worried that the big heavy cupcake on top was going to just topple over on the home-made cake tier tray but it worked out great (as long as there were cupcakes on the bottom two tiers to keep it steady)

three-tiered tray minus the cupcakes

the fake cupcakes were a great addition to the food table and centerpieces and went great with the theme, and yes we did have to remind a few people that they were indeed fake. 

Princess Ella getting into her smash cupcake (and surrounded by paparazzi)

My favorite picture, Hope, Ella & Eric (post-cupcake eating) 

papa, paparazzi

opening her numerous gifts

tantrums are cuter in tutus, and it's her party and she can throw a little tantrum if she wants to.

...besides, she bounced right back.

Rachel, Dana & Colton enjoying the festivities

Scarlet and Colton ready to make a run for it

Ella and her sweet grandpas

I am so happy that I got to be a part of not only the party-planning for Ella, but also her first year. Can't wait to celebrate many more birthdays with this princess. 

You may notice that there are no pics of Sawyer from this party. Homeboy spent an entire week at the beach with Josh's family (and Josh went down Wednesday) and was too ill from traveling and helping unpack his grandparents' cars to grace us with his presence (as was his daddy). So Saturday while I was spray-gluing sprinkles to the top of fake cupcakes Sawyer was thankfully not around to destroy them, instead he was fishing with his "uncle jordy".
 

a Paw Patrol "paw-ty"

Sawyer decided he wanted a Paw Patrol birthday party this year. In case you are lucky enough that your life doesn't revolve around Nick Jr., Paw Patrol is a brand new tv show featuring a set of dogs and their owner who go on missions and stuff. With it being so new, there are NO existing party supplies for Paw Patrol. 

So, I had to wing it.

Note: I've received a lot of emails asking where these invitations can be purchased or found online. I made these myself using graphics from the Nick Jr. site. 

Thankfully, Nick Jr. has a great printables section on their website that I used a lot for decorations.

Banner from Nick Jr. (via)

Treat Bag toppers from Nick Jr. (via)

Popcorn Containers from Nick Jr. (via)

For table decoration, I just printed out the badges from Nick Jr. (via) and then taped them to their corresponding "hat" (I found the yellow hat at the Dollar Tree and the blue & red at Michael's). Then I cut out a picture of each dog that went with the badge and staged them with their corresponding vehicle (which Sawyer already had).

We decided to just serve hotdogs & chips and then enjoyed some cake. I waited a little late to get a cake, so I just printed out a picture of Paw Patrol characters and had Wal-Mart do the "picture to cake" print. It turned out horrible. I added M&M's all around the picture to take up the empty white space and try to distract from the terrible quality of the edible picture.

Sawyer didn't seem to mind though...

My awesome friend Caroline owns a monogram & gift ship and does screen printing, so she made Sawyer's shirt for me!

showing off his tshirt

I used Nick Jr.'s "Pin the Badge on Marshall" game, which Sawyer totally cheated at.

via

We had a ton of toddlers (and infants) at our house, but everyone had a great time!

Sawyer's babysitter "BeeBee" (also our friend Chris' mom), came and brought some kiddos with her 

our friend Dana's son, Colton (see her baby shower here)

Our cousin Michelle's son, Wallace (see that baby shower here)

Sawyer's friend Brileigh

Our friend Hope's baby, Ella (see her baby shower here)

our friend Chris is a straight-up baby whisperer, kids adore him. (p.s. he's single ladiessss)

Also, Sawyer and his "girlfriend" Rorie (Chris' niece) kept going missing and we'd find them back in his bed... watch out world, Sawyer doesn't waste any time. 

I think the two pictures below sum up the success of the party:

Our play room at the end of the party:

My husband at the end of the party:

reward for best hotdog cook = a beer in hand

a baby shower for my future niece!

Josh and I are getting a sweet little niece and Sawyer is getting his first, first cousin!

Josh's little brother Jordan and his fiancée Shannon are expecting a precious baby girl towards the end of November and I was so excited to help throw a shower for them, along with Josh's aunts on Sunday.

Shannon & Jordan
photos by Michelle Messer Photography (view more of her work here)

Sadly, I didn't get anywhere near enough picture since it was a busy, busy day between church, homecoming lunch and the shower. But here are just a few!

Those are pumpkin spice latte cupcakes my friends, and they were amazing.

Since the headband making station was such a success at Hope's baby shower (here) we decided to do it again for Shannon and also added some fun iron-on appliques and dresses for the guests to choose from.

And of course, a baby shower isn't a baby shower without a diaper wreath (tutorial here)...

Forgive the fact that the wreath is sitting on a chair, I never got around to taking a picture of it actually hanging on the door.

Sawyer really liked the wreath and it took me a long time to convince him that he didn't need it hanging in his bedroom.

We are so excited to add TWO new members (both Shannon & baby Karlie) to the family and can hardly wait for Karlie's arrival.