Polkadot First Birthday and Kickball Celebration

One party for a little girl…..and another for a “big” girl. Enjoy these fun parties!
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This Polkadot Fun First Birthday was originally hosted by Jill from Bless Our Nest.
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Kennedy’s first birthday has officially come…and gone…It was such a fun week celebrating and remembering how just one short year ago we had just had her and brought her home with us (can you believe they let us bring a kid home)? Yet here we are, a year later, every one is sane and in one piece and those sleepless nights are but a faded memory. I have a TON of pictures to show you but today we will stick with party details because I LOVE throwing parties and its ALL in the details!

I drew inspiration from many party blogs so I’ll try and give you as many resources as I can to either purchase it yourself or be a copy cat like me and DIY

You have seen the invitation already. We designed these ourselves with a program Justin has, and then ordered them from a printers. It was really affordable. I wanted to do something fun and colorful for miss Kennedy’s first birthday since she isn’t “into” anything yet, being that she is too little to know characters or themes and whatnot. So like the invite, I stuck with dots and an orange, pink, and blue theme, with a little green.

First, the party table all done up. I had the party at 1 in the afternoon so expected most people to eat something lunchy before coming and provided some light snacking, some yummy for adults and some kid suitable: fruit, chicken nuggets, cheese ball, spinach artichoke dip, pasta salad, and teeny bbq weenies. I got the hanging lanterns from Ikea for only $5 each!
I made cupcakes instead of doing cake. We had plain white cake with buttercream frosting and sprinkles, and cookies and cream cupcakes with mini oreos on top of buttercream icing. So yummy! I actually got to eat one once everything slowed down…Kennedy’s cupcake was made in a jumbo muffin pan to make it bigger and a little extra special since she WAS the birthday girl!
I grew slightly obsessed with finding some drink dispensers that would meet my specifications and found them at Crate and Barrel. I love them! I filled these two with pink lemonade and sweet tea but decided to give them some funky twists with festive names! Momma’s Southern Sweet Tea (bc it is MY momma’s recipe, and she is southern) and Tickled Pink Lemonade (since we were celebrating my baby girls bday).
I also got some of these little juice bottles for the kids, I remember LOVING these as a kid and thought they would enjoy them too! It made the drink station complete.
Next, the birthday banner. Now I have found a couple different gals who make these fun banners, as well as cupcakes tops and other fun paper goods, but my favorite is probably Jess of PolkaDots and Pirates. I made this one easily and love it so very much, I just might not take it down until November. It went great on the fireplace along with some fun frames I found at Target for really cheap and balloons to add even more fun!
I also had a little sweet shoppe with “1″ suckers that I made and bags to fill with other goodies. The one candy molds I found at Candy Mold Central. It was cheap and I got 3 so I could make more at once. (Pop them in the freezer, they harden faster)

The front door sign

Her highchair

My sweet girl eating her cake

I just love this picture of her standing in her new big girl chair. Such a sweet little face…

My two favorite people EVER!
All that work, and the party lasted about 3 1/2 hours, just doesn’t seem right huh? Well, I’ll post more about the party fun with more pictures tomorrow!

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This Kickball Party was originally hosted by Little Ant Designs

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The two teams, The Neville Kickbottoms

and The Spongebob Kickpants played a good game but in the end only one team could be the victor

Congratulations Team Kickpants!

I love the signs that one of the cute moms made for both teams – thanks Shauna!  Shauna is the one that drew who knows how many dark marks on the arms of the teenagers when we were in line for Harry Potter.

There was some fine athleticism displayed …

amazing form – Megan has never looked so athletic

speed

a sense of fashion even in the heat of competition

a fierce competitive attitude

the thrill of victory

the agony of defeat – “What?  I’m totally safe.”

It turned out to be a great evening and we’re glad so many kids could join in on the fun.  But the night didn’t end with the game – there were celebrations to be had.

Any good game ends with a parent tunnel

Before leaving the field The Spongebob Kickpants picked up their winners trophy…

You weren’t aware that there was a Kickball Championship Trophy were you?  Amazing what a $4 lamp from Goodwill, styrofoam and paint will make, huh?  Since no one person could take the trophy home because I’m holding on to that baby for next years rematch, I put together individual awards for each person on the winning team that they picked up once back at our house where the festivities continued.

They each received a mini trophy with a giant gumball kickball on top as well as a medal.  The “kickballs” were a hit and it was hilarious watching the kids try to chew them.

After all the competition on the field the kids were hungry.  There were lots of tacos and burritos consumed

and lots of this…

I’m not sure what it is but the teenagers have a love affair with this slightly thick, processed, yellow goodness.

Whenever we serve it (which is nearly every time we have teenagers over)  They surround the stuff, each trying to get their fair share and you can bet they will be back for seconds, thirds and fourths.

Here’s to making this a yearly event – cheese and all!