Annie's **1st** Birthday Party

 

We had so much fun on Saturday the 23rd celebrating our sweet Annie turning ONE!! It is hard to believe she is a year old!! This past year has been so much fun, and we loved commemorating this special day with an ice cream party! Luckily it was a sunny, warm day so people could also take advantage of the pool! The invite said, "A little ice cream and a lot of fun, our sweet Annie is turning ONE!"...with all the details below.

The party girl!

Guests entered the fence straight into the pool area. I wanted to make it obvious where they should go, so we put out these signs. I was so excited to find the little metal ice cream "hand dipped" sign to hang in addition to the chalkboard and wooden signs.

I asked Steven to do this for me, and he did not disappoint! His handwriting and (artistic ability for that matter) are so much better than mine!

This sign is a re-vamp from Henry's 2nd bday party. I was going to get rid of it, but decided to reuse instead! "Annie is one. Let's celebrate!" is the current declaration!

Mama and Dada with the sweet bday girl!

We set up 2 tables on the deck. This one held the smash cake and regular cake (which we brought out later-didn't want it to melt!). I was so excited when it dawned on me that I could use the pre existing hanging window frames to display Annie's 12 month pictures. I made a "Sweet Annie" banner to hang above. I was SO pleased with how this turned out!

The other table held all the food (hot dogs/brats,baked beans, pasta salad, and strawberry feta green salad). I made the ice cream cone garland that hung above it. It was actually quite easy, too, and cheap! Someone had given be a bunch of yarn, so I made a bunch of balls and hot glued cones to them and a cherry pom-pom on top, then strung them on yarn. I really didn't want to hand write Annie's info board (my handwriting issue again...), so when I saw a computer version at another party we went to recently, I got the info from my friend and decided to try it out. It took some time, but this non-technical person was actually able to figure it out! The most difficult part was getting it printed. It had to be smaller than I had wanted due to some technical issues, but I just mounted it on some poster board and it seemed to be fine still. And...it cost me 43 cents!:)

We played pin the cherry on the ice cream cone!

I set out bubbles to play with on this table. Cousin Kaia decorated the little chalkboard sign for me (which I found at the Target $1 section for $3!). I thought it was so cute!

Annie's 2 grandmas enjoyed the shade!

The pool was calling our names!

I made these nutter butter treats for the sweets table. They were SO, SO easy!

Aunt Mae made Annie's smash cake. It was adorable!! Just what I wanted, and of course she pulled it off.

And here is the other "cake"...again Aunt Mae did a perfect job decorating the cupcakes. I was so pleased with how these turned out!

The birthday girl! I attempted this party hat for her, but it was a little heavy and kept sliding off! We got a few pics in it at least!

The 5 cousins!

Lilianna and Annie are less than 3 wks apart. I'm glad her little buddy was able to come!

I handed Annie to Grandpa a little too soon. She was unsure of him and broke down crying pretty quickly, then had trouble recovering and only wanted me for a while afterward! Sigh! It's so funny because she always reacts like this to him, and he's such a friendly, kid loving guy! Sorry grandpa. We will keep trying!

More guests! Ezra and Annie are also just about 3 wks apart, and we loved having another baby friend around to help us celebrate!

Months 1-6

Month 7-12

Dada, Grandpa, and Uncle Jimmy (whose beard Annie loved to pull all wknd btw!)

Grandma and Aunt Mae

Manar splashing with Annie

The McInnis family was also there. Georgia was warming up on the hammock after a dip!

The grandmas giving the birthday girl some attention!

More decor...I hung yarn ice cream cones from the umbrellas, too!

Annie kept looking at the hanging ice cream cones and reaching for them. She has just started pointing, so she would point and fuss to get to them! It made me happy she noticed them:)

I wanted to snap a picture of all the ice cream toppings before taking them out to be devoured!

Here we are pre-cake. As you can see she did not appreciate her hat:)

We sang to Annie and she kept reaching for her candle. Then she pulled the cone off and threw it on the floor. We picked it back up and put it on again, and she promptly threw it off again, this time breaking it:) She touched the frosting a little, then I put some in her mouth and she ate it, but wasn't crazy about it.

Here she is checking it out a little more.

After a few minutes of trying to get her to eat cake, Grandpa tried to give Annie her very first bite of ice cream. She was not too pleased about it and started crying. Oh, well! I have no doubt she will learn to love it.

After I fed her a little, then brother wanted to get in on it. She at a bite from him, too.

Henry was happy that he FINALLY was getting to eat some of the cake he helped make the day before!

As you can see he thoroughly enjoyed cake and ice cream time!

Three generations represented here!

My folks with the bday girl (who was starting to get tired of being passed around... ). I'm so glad they were part of Annie's special day!

Here are the kids at the part (minus Lilianna who had just left). Ezra, Annie, Kaia, Henry, Georgia, Marley, Camden, and Layna

Annie "hitting" her pinata! We went from youngest to oldest, she she was first up. Kaia was the one who finally broke it open (second to oldest represented!)

Mommy and Aunt Mae with the birthday girl!

We also played pin the cherry on the ice cream cone!

Henry got pretty close with his!

She loved playing with the pom poms!

Annie...with a cherry on top!

Annie actually seemed to really enjoy opening her little gifts and played happily with each one! She doesn't really have many things that are "hers", so it was fun to get some gifts just for baby girl!:)

I scream, you scream! We all scream for ice cream!!!

Here are the party favors we sent with guests.  Each little bag had ice cream bubbles, an ice cream post-it matchbook/notebook, a mini-pen, and smarties. We sealed the cute little bags up with gold washi tape, and voila! Thank you everyone for helping us celebrate this special day!! We had so much fun! Annie's actual bday is the 26th, and her check up is the week following, so stay tuned for her 12 month post after that!