Riley's 1st Birthday Party

We celebrated Riley's first birthday a few weeks ago, on Valentine's Day, with some of our family and friends. Her actual birthday is the 11th, but we wanted to wait until that weekend when we would have a whole bunch of family in town to celebrate. We had the party on campus in the school's dining hall, and it worked out great! There was lots of room for the kids to run around and there were tables and chairs already set up so it was the perfect space.

The food tables.

 The banner behind the table has each monthly picture from the year all the way from her 1st month to her 1st birthday. We did her party in the morning, so we had lots of snacks and morning drinks like coffee, tea, water, etc. The green buckets are filled with ice and drinks.

These are the Strawberry Shortcake cupcakes I talked about here.

The gift table & the party favor table.

Each kid got a goodie bag of bubbles and stickers. The tag says "Thanks for coming to my party!".

The play area set up for the kids.

Table centerpieces.
We used cylinder vases with shredded green & brown paper, and a rectangle square of animal print paper with runts sprinkled around it.

 The craft table where the kids could make lion masks that I talked about here.

Riley's first birthday smash cake area.

Riley enjoying her party.

Singing happy birthday to our girl.

First bites.

Her reaction! Haha. She's LOVING it.

Digging in!

Family pic.

Friends pic.

It was a simple and wonderful way to celebrate Riley's first year.

Thanks to all that came to celebrate!

Friday Favorites

Every Friday, I will share some things that I am really loving that week. A great start into the weekend and maybe it will give you some ideas. We have a Nor'Easter coming our way for tomorrow so a nice relaxing, cozy day at home for us. We'll probably try to get outside for a bit and play in the snow, but Ry isn't too sure about snow yet. We'll see!

Here are my favorites things this week..

Once Upon a Child

They buy and sell gently worn baby and children's clothes, equipment, etc. They have locations all over the country. We went for the first time last weekend during their 10 items for $10 sale just to see and boy were we pleasantly surprised! We walked out of there with some great late winter/early spring clothes for Ry. A lot of what we got her were Baby Gap clothes for $1 each! Here she is in one of the dresses.

The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks

 I really enjoy reading a book and then seeing the movie version. I am a big fan of Nicholas Sparks and I recently found out this book was going to be his next movie coming out in April 2015. I just started it a few days ago but it is wonderful. 

These Stride Rite shoes for Ry. We just got them today during their Buy One, Get One 40% off. She has really started taking to walking and we want her to have some shoes that are good quality that will support her ankles/feet/legs as she ventures into walking. You can find ones like hers here.

I have watched American Idol from the beginning and I've got to say, I really love having Harry Connick Jr., JLo and Keith Urban together. Their dynamic is hilarious. I literally laughed out loud last week during one of their jokes. I'm also really excited to see these contestants more. There seem to be some really awesome talent!

Riley's first birthday is fast approaching (only about 2 weeks!) and we are going to do a Zoo/Jungle theme. I wanted a craft for some of the older kids to do to keep them entertained during the party and saw this idea! How cute! You can find the tutorial here.

Have a wonderful weekend!

-A