Callie's Minnie Birthday Party

Birthday parties have become one of my favorite things to plan for!  Callie's first birthday party was so much fun and perfect for our little 1 year old and her friends.  This year we wanted to do something that would keep all of the kids entertained so that we adults could dive into actual conversations and enjoy the beautiful day!  Planning began while I was on bed rest with Kellan so I had plenty of time to browse Pinterest for fun ideas.  You can check out my party board here to see some of the inspirations for her big day.  

This girl seriously adores her some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  We try to limit her to 1 episode a day, but when she bats those long eyelashes at me and says, "more Mickey, pleeeeeaaassseeee?!" this momma melts into putty and caves... We decided to take it a little more specific and focus mostly on 1 character, Minnie Mouse "Mimmie."  Once that decision was made the planning became super easy!  

I wanted to go with the more modern Minnie Mouse, she wears pink instead of red.  This allowed me to use some decorations from her first party instead of having to completely start from scratch!  Her outfit was a great find on Zulily, perfect for being dressy but still allowing her to bounce to her hearts content!  I also had to try my hand at a Minnie inspired headband and have to say, I love how it turned out!  Super easy, friends... Simply take a black t-shirt and cut 1 inch strips, use your glue gun and roll/twist until you have a rosette.  Add two smaller ones to the top and finish with a ribbon bow!  To make it a little more party ready I added some feathers and a pink shabby flower and then attached it to a headband.  She LOVED her special bow!   This picture was right after I made it so there are still some pesky glue strings on it, but you get the idea!

Dress // here
Leggings // here
Headband // here 

Next came the decorations!  

{I used styrafoam balls and circles, painted them black and then added a pink polka dot bow to make these adorable Minnie Mouse centerpieces.  Add some flowers to pink confetti in a jar, wrap with ribbon and finish off with a chalkboard sticker!}

 

{The photo booth was one of our favorite parts!  Super easy with these awesome props from Etsy! Found here}

 

 {Then I made some pennant banners with construction paper, scrapbook paper and ribbon!  Again, so easy and incredibly affordable!}

{Always a great hit at kid parties; a blow up pool filled with balls, we topped it off with adding the slide!}

 {A view of the entire backyard pre-party}

 {I loved how her sign turned out!  We had the party in the backyard and didn't want guests to have to walk through the house so we made this fun sign to point them in the right direction.  I just used black foam core board, metallic markers, card stock, wooden dowels and foam letter stickers!  It took about 20 minutes to make and worked perfectly!}

 {This was our main attraction... A Mickey Mouse Clubhouse bounce house made specifically for toddlers!  There was a slide, characters and lots of room to bounce!  Even the adults had some fun jumping around inside!}

{I took black paper lanterns and tissue paper to make these adorable Minnie Mouse decorations.  Then I hung them with fishing line over the gift table.}

 {And of course, I had to make her a birthday "chalkboard" again this year.  This was before I added her weight, but you get the idea!  You can find my tutorial for a DIY birthday chalkboard here.}

 {We served hot dogs and "Minnie" caprese burgers for lunch along with some fruit and chips.}

 {Cupcakes made to look like Minnie Mouse made for the perfect dessert!  Thank you, Joanna!}

 {And more random pictures from her big, special day.  She was so tuckered out from jumping all morning that she could hardly muster a smile for her birthday song...}

I'd say the party was a HUGE success.  Everyone took a much needed, long nap that afternoon.  And the best part was not having to clean the house because everything took place outside!  We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful, Texas day!  A little windy, but we ARE in Texas after all. :) Happy 2nd birthday, Callie-Girl!

Callie's Pink & Chalkboard Extravaganza

After months of planning, fervently searching Pinterest for inspiration and hours of prep work, Callie's first birthday party has finally come and gone. I'd love to say that it went off without a hitch, unfortunately, as my luck would have it, I cannot say such.  But more on that later.

I had so much fun over the past year decorating Callie's chalkboard with her monthly stats and tracking her growth each month.  Looking back it is such a wonderful miracle to see how she went from a 5.8 lb teensie tot to an almost 17 lb toddler.

Everyone kept asking what the theme for her birthday was going to be and to be honest, I wasn't aware that there was an expectation for a theme at a one year old's birthday.  I mean, let's get real here... The girl has a great personality and is so very smart, but she doesn't watch TV, isn't into any type of book or cartoon character and is way to young to have picked out any hobbies, so a "theme" was very difficult to generate (unless you can classify hiding toys in boxes a theme).  After a little thought I decided to incorporate two of the things that were most prevalent over the first year of her life; chalkboards and pink.  Yep.  It was that simple.

Here are a few of the decorations from little Miss' birthday party!  For putting this all together by myself (again, more on that later) I am pretty proud, however, some things didn't make it to fruition and that makes me a little sad.  I guess there is always next year!

{Dessert Table}

{Animal Cookie Truffles <-- delish="" p="">

{Glittered wine bottles vases}

 {Tower of Delicious Cupcakes}

 {Animal Cookies - For the Kiddos}

 {Chocolate Dipped Pretzels} 

And yes, I am fully aware that I misspelled pretzel... I am not perfect.

 {Smash Cake}

 {12 Month Stat Chalkboard & Note Station}

 {This was actually a huge success... Can't wait to give them to her someday!}

 {Closeup of "chalkboard"}
**You can now find a tutorial for the chalkboard here**

 {Box for predictions/notes to Callie}

 {The 12 months of Callie... She's so stinkin cute. I can't handle it}

 {And of course, my little Birthday Girl!}

 

{I also created a book with all of her monthly pictures and a little note to hear for each month.  What an incredible keepsake!  It turned out so much better than I could have hoped for}

{For more fun and pictures you can follow me on Instagram nickilynne15}

Stay tuned for more party pictures and details about the big day!!  Thanks for stopping by. :)