A version of this post appeared on the blog several years ago. I thought we would resurrect it in honor of Ella’s upcoming tenth birthday.
I wasn’t yet blogging when we celebrated Ella’s first birthday and I thought it might be fun to share the photos with you here! We’re creeping up on double-digits (one month from today!) and I thought it might be fun to share a few flashback posts over the next few weeks. I’ll be recapping a few of my favorite parties leading up to the big day!
Her first birthday invitations read “Our Little Cupcake is Turning One,” so we decorated with everything sweet and pink. I started planning this party so far in advance and I couldn’t imagine anything better than sweet, pink princesses. Even as an infant, she was a girly girl through and through. We had the party at my parents’ pool on a Sunday afternoon in September. The unfortunate thing about Ella’s birthday is that it’s right after the start of football season and I know better than to expect the men in my family to eat cupcakes if there are college football games on the television. We opted for a Sunday afternoon so the guys didn’t have to feel guilty about missing the game. Or the party, as the case may be! I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out — Ella had a great time and that is the only measure of a good party as far as I’m concerned.
I’m still scrounging around for the original, full sized images from her party, so for now we’ll have to settle for these collages I found on my hard-drive. Forgive the smaller size, please.
The photos above show the food table with the SEVENTY-FIVE cupcakes my mom and I baked and iced the week of the party. We also served brownies, homemade chocolate chip cookies, snack mix and chocolate ice cream in waffle bowls. Since Josh and I both have large families, we knew we needed a ton of food to share. At the time, my parents had a large white tent (where the barn is now) near the pool area that we draped with chenille bedspreads and a fabric bunting (that has made many an appearance at birthday parties since). My dad made the wooden sign with Ella’s name and we dressed the dressmaker’s form in Ella’s birthday hat and tutu. How sweet?!
Just in case you thought the “big party” phenomenon was a knew one, you can see we’ve been doing it right from the very beginning! My mom always threw beautiful parties for us growing up and I can’t imagine doing it any other way. I did tell Ella a few weeks ago, that I think the tenth birthday might be the last big party at our house and that after that we might try smaller shindigs or going on a family adventure instead. Big parties are a ton of work!
Ella LOVED blowing out the sparkler candles on her cupcake and it didn’t take her long to realize that smash cakes are amazing! She made quite a dent in that cake herself, but it was so delicious that no one minded finishing it off for her. You can see how pretty the ice cream bowls were and we just covered plastic sprinkles containers with patterned scrapbooking paper to coordinate. We shared colored marshmallows for tiny fingers and the little pink favor sacks held homemade cookies for all of our guests to enjoy.
One month and counting until this baby girl is TEN!
