Makadie's First Birthday and Party

First off, I have to say that I am so glad that we decided to throw a birthday party for Makadie's first birthday!  I went back and forth for a little while about whether or not to do a birthday party for Makadie's first birthday, but in the end, I decided that she was only going to have it once and so why not?  Besides, it was fun for me to plan it.  :)

About a week and a half before her birthday, I took Makadie to my friend, BriAnna, to have some one year pictures taken.  She did a fantastic job and I highly recommend her.  (Here is a link to her site.)  Although I would love to put all of the pictures on here, I just picked a few favorites.  I made the onesie that she is wearing and I got the cute little pettiskirt for free online.  Her little cake I made using ramekins and I made the cake stand out of a dollar store candlestick and candle plate.  It turned out perfect! 

Makadie's official birthday was on a Friday.  I made her some applesauce pancakes in the shape of a '1'.  She gobbled that down like nobody's business and still wanted more.  (She eats almost as much as I do sometimes!)  We mostly just played around the rest of the day in between naps.  I also worked on finishing some of the prep work for her party the next day.

The next day, Saturday, Makadie slept in a little bit and she also took a fantastic nap.  She literally woke up 5 minutes before people started arriving, which was so nice because she was really happy the entire time people were here.  We chose to do an open house style party since we were expecting quite a few people to come by and we didn't really have enough room for 40+ adults and kids in our house.  Thankfully, most of the older kids played in our basement so it worked out pretty well.

I had originally wanted to do a 'Winter ONEderland' themed party, but decided that was a little more work than I had time to plan.  Ultimately, I stuck with a few basic colors--red, yellow, and blue--and that seemed to work well.  I made some little "Wishes for Makadie" cards that I wanted everyone to fill out for Makadie.  Basically there was a prompt and then people would fill in the blank and sign their name at the bottom.  (I wish I could take credit for coming up with it, but I got the idea from here.)  I read through them afterwards and they are really neat.  I know that she will treasure them when she gets older.

For the treats, we did cupcakes and giant chocolate dipped marshmallows, with lemon water to drink.  Originally we were only going to do the cupcakes, but about an hour before the party we realized we had miscounted the number of people coming and the cupcakes we had baked so we had to come up with an alternative.  I actually can claim the credit for this idea.  Covey had to run to the store anyway and so he grabbed some giant marshmallows and skewers.  I already had the melting chocolate and sprinkles.  It literally took me 20 minutes and they turned out great!  Most of the kids took the marshmallows, leaving the cupcakes for everyone else, which is exactly what I hoped would happen.

For decorations, I developed a picture from each month of her one year and then strung them across the window over the dessert table.  I made fun little pom-pom flowers out of tissue paper which turned out cuter than I had expected.  Throw in some balloons and a couple more pictures from Makadie's first birthday photo shoot and the decor was done.  Nothing too fancy, but I was happy with it.





The last little thing I did for the party was an idea I saw on Pinterest.  A mom had made these little cards to have people fill out their "wishes" for her daughter.  I loved the idea and thought it would make a great keepsake for her when she gets older.  I loved reading through them afterwards.

We had so many people come to the party!  I was excited to see everyone, especially those we don't see too often.


My mom had a work meeting during the party so she came beforehand to give Kadie her gifts--a cell phone and some cute new clothes!


Great-grandparents


Covey's friend, Quinn, and his daughter, Chanelle came


My longtime friend, Lindsay, and her husband and little girl came too!  Our daughters are only a couple of weeks apart.


Michael, Lily, Makadie and Lindsay


My good friend, Lisa.  Makadie was fascinated with her curly hair. 


Opening a present from our friends, Dan and Kanessa.  Their little girl, Natalie helped. :)

Towards the end, we pulled out Makadie's birthday cake.  We did do a mini "smash cake" at her one year pictures, but we did a bigger one for her actual birthday.  I really wanted to do a giant cupcake and I found a good deal on Amazon ($14) for a pan.  At her photo shoot, she was pretty cautious about getting into the cake, but she went to town on the one for her birthday!  Maybe it had something to do with all the people there, but she got so excited!  It was so cute!  Everyone was laughing at her.  She was going crazy!  She literally flung cake everywhere and it was all over her face and her hair.  She didn't get much in her mouth though.  I was switching back and forth on my camera between taking pictures and doing video trying to get every moment captured.  Afterwards, Covey swept her away for a quick bath while we cleaned up the cake mess.  (We found cake in random places all over the kitchen for the next couple days.)

This was taken as we were singing "Happy Birthday".  She was literally bouncing up and down and waving her arms in the air!  So funny!


"Want some?"
















Off to the bath for this messy little birthday girl!

Overall, it was a really fantastic day!  Makadie had a lot of fun and I think everyone else who came had a good time too.  Especially those who stayed to watch her demolish her cake!  :)

 
Happy 1st Birthday Kadie Bug! We love you!