Happy Birthday Madeline!

I am still finding it hard to believe that our baby girl is a year old (actually a year and a week today). Over the last year, our life has changed more than we ever imagined - and all in a good way. We used to love sleeping in on the weekends, and now like clockwork she's up at 7 a.m. and all smiles, and you can't help but be happy when you see that big grin. Our house was usually pretty well organized, but now it consistently looks like a Toys R Us exploded in it, and we don't care. We used to love to go out and do stuff on the weekends, but now we're perfectly happy to sit at home and let her play.

She's starting to want to walk. She will take a few steps and then fall down, not really understanding what she just did. Also, minutes before her party started she realized that her finger fits really well in her nose. As I look back on the last year, I feel so blessed to have been on this journey with Brian. We really did hit the baby jackpot with Madeline. She started sleeping through the night by the time she was about 10 weeks old. She eats well, doesn't fuss much and always gives us a big smile when we walk in the door to pick her up.

When we started planning her party, we tossed around a few ideas, but once Brian suggested a bee theme, nothing else seemed right. I loved planning everything and how it all came together.

Here's how it all came together:

Cake - This is a plain, white sheet cake from Costco decorated with fondant toppers from a seller on etsy.

When I thought about what to do as favors, I decided that because we were going to have a very diverse crowd age-wise (from 9 months on up), food would work best. I had Rice Krispie Treats dipped in white chocolate, pretzel rods dipped in white chocolate, and shaped sugar cookies from a website. The stickers were ordered on vistaprint.com

We had planned on having seating outside, but we had some freakishly cold weather (it even snowed after everyone left), so our plans changed a bit and we added seating in the living room. I ordered the paper lanterns from ebay and plan on hanging some in Madeline's room since her room is done in yellow.

One of the great things about Madeline having a May birthday is the abundance of pastel-colored decorations available on the Target $1 aisle. I made these little birthday buckets using $1 buckets, doilies  from Dollar Tree and treat sticks from Hobby Lobby. It was so amazing to look at the pictures side by side and see how she changed from one month to the next.

I made this banner using large doilies, scrapbook paper (for the letters) and poster board. To make the letters, I found a font I really liked on dafont.com, printed out the words really large and then traced them onto the scrapbook paper. Then I just strung them on cord using a single-hole punch and affixed them to the ceiling with thumbtacks.

When we decided on colors, I wanted everything to match. I found these bowls on the Target discount aisle, and I found the fabric on ebay. How perfect is it?! I just wish I had thought to take the pictures before the party when all the bowls were pretty instead of after :-(

Tea and lemonade - yum

My yard sign from Vistaprint.com. We may put it out every year.

The fabulous invitations (printed on vistaprint.com) and matching postage (printed on zazzle.com) designed by my friend Theresa

Ok. Enough of the decorations. Now for the people. The beautiful birthday girl with a dress that matches the decorations.

Mommy and the birthday girl (yes, my dress and jewelry match the decorations too)

We just couldn't wait until she turned 16 and got her a car for her birthday. Yeah I know. We're spoiling her.

And on her actual birthday with her last of the "month" pictures.

VENDORS
Invitation, Sticker and Postage Design: Theresa Varela (email me for her info)
Bee Image: Graciously provided by Rosie Piter - http://www.acclaimimages.com/
Invitation Printing: Vistaprint.com
Sticker Printing: Vistaprint.com
Postage Printing: Zazzle.com
Sugar Cookies: Center Stage Sweets
Fondant Cake Toppers: KidsCakes on Etsy
Cake: Costco