Lina´s 1st Birthday Decoration

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

I spent lots of time for the thought how to decorate my little girl´s first birthday. Most of the ideas I found... of course... on Pinterest. Oh what would have I done if there wasn´t such an addictive collection of adorable pictures? Where would I have taken the tips from?
Happily there is a community of mamas who already have given birthday parties with lovely decoration so I could try to take some of the creative ideas.

One of the most important facts for me was, that I wanted to do the biggest part of the deco myself. I just bought stuff like paper plates, paper cups, napkins or the beautiful garland... but the actual and personal embellishment was made by me.

So I think I´m going to show you the different kinds of the adornment. Check it out:

The invites

I bought some printed invites on partydreams but for my taste they were too less charming. So I garnished the pure cards... glued the loose invitation on colourful paper, folded in half, wrote a little text, the party dates and put a picture of Lina inside showing her at the age of "one".

I think they turned out pretty cute... and most important... unique!

Details

• A jar filled with chocolate chips and a large number "one" makes up an adorable eyecatcher. The original is taken from there.

• One of the pieces I like most is the sweet caterpillar I made out of colored cardstock documenting Lina´s 12 months with photos always taken on the 26th. Inspired by this example I cut and glued and tinkered... it was so much fun... I couldn´t believe, ha! ... and it is definitely my children´s favorite! They still love looking at the caterpillar so I didn´t take it off yet ;-)

• These teeny tiny caterpillars are made of a chenille wire, a little red pom-pom and craft eyes. I sticked them together and curved the wire like a worm. Then I put these little ones on every fruit and all the sweets... just as a little detail and a funny decoration.

• I found the storytext of the Very Hungry Caterpillar there. These free printables are a cute supplement to the party details. First I wanted to stick them onto coloured paper as well but unfortunately there was not enough time left because I got the prints the day before the party and then I forgot. Does not matter... they looked sweet! I fixed the papers on empty ice cream sticks to  be able to put them upright whereever I wanted. This simple idea worked great!

 

• The children´s table is a new purchase. We bought it for the little ones because they are so proud when they have their own space to eat and by the way: we put it in the grass so they could eat without having to be careful to make a mess. This was a good idea!

• I set some lovely gifts for the kids in bags together... a water bottle, something sweet, a teeny tiny racing car, stickers and a soap bubble tank. Cute that they were so happy about these little toys :-) 

 

• Balloons are a very important part of a children´s birthday party. They make the ambiance looks inviting, friendly and colourful. But I didn´t just put them everywhere outside in the backyard but also inside... where I built up a little cute photo corner for Miss Lina´s birthday shooting. Unfortunately we had to do this in the living room because there was flowing rainfall on her actual birthday! Nevertheless... I looove these pics! Aren´t they cutest?

But on Wednesday the weather was awesome again and we got our family pictures taken in the garden. I´m so very happy about them. They are too beautiful... and some funny ones as well!

• This is the birthday dress I ordered for my little birthday girl... fitting to the theme. A sweet skirt with red apples and an adorable shirt showing a "1" , her name and apples as well. First I wanted to have a tutu like this but ordering from Etsy turned out incredibly difficult (and expensive) to Austria. So I decided to take the cheaper and more comfy variant and dressed her like this.

• Our frontdoor decorated girlishly and showing everybody "The girl in the house turns one!", Hooray!

Food

On sunday... Lina´s acual b-day... I had to cancel the party for the children because I didn´t want to stay inside with all the little ones. So I had to abandon the plan to make the smashing cake for my daughter on her day, too. I was slightly annoyed but what can you do... bad weather is bad weather!

But the replacement cake was yummy and nobody recognized it as a surrogate, bahaha!

• Due to the fact that we had guests sunday to wednesday, I had to prepare something sweet every day. But I made muffins too because I was so busy, I had no time for cakes so very often. I think the cupcakes look cute and the caterpillar decoration is adorlable!

• Yummy layers salad... to offer some piquant food too... not always just sweet stuff... I thought about something spicy I could prepare the day before the party. So I found this delicious recipe.

• My sweet artwork

Made a delicious banana cake with chocolate mousse and custard, covered with marzipan for my princess. I decorated it with marzipan fruits and a caterpillar, made by my mother in law. 
Of course, it could have turned out a little bit more beautiful, but I did my best... and I learned for the next times! Putting on a thin layer of marzipan is very, very difficult, ha!

Nevertheless... it tasted great... Lina liked it a lot!

Lovely Lina... your birthday party was awesome! I loved doing this all for you because you are my precious daughter!

Love,

Mama