Adeline’s 1st Birthday Party: Pom Poms, Pennants and Pinwheels
We had Adeline’s first birthday party on Saturday, June 30 and it was a huge success.The decor theme was pom poms, pennants and pinwheels. I love, love, love planning fun, creative, lovely parties for my kids and am so excited to share all the details (be prepared for a very long post!).
We hosted the party in our home (this was a first for us – we have always had Elias’s parties at a local park) and had about 20 people attend.
Before I share the details of the party, I want to share this realization: Having Adeline’s party at our house showed me that I have been too concerned in the past about the size of our home. Just because we have a small space (our total condo is just over 1,000 sq. ft.) does not mean we can’t entertain! I don’t think one person thought to themselves, gosh, they should not be having this party here. If you are like us and live in a small space, I want to encourage you to have a party! We love to entertain, but usually keep it to one or two couples coming over. After Adeline’s party, I want to have lots more people over.
Okay, stepping off my soapbox.
SO! Like I said the first birthday theme was pom poms, pennants and pinwheels. Below are the invitations I had made. I had a Groupon for Mixbook to get them printed, but I didn’t care for the designs they offered. Rather than creating something on my own (which I could have done, but it would have been time consuming) I went to Etsy. There I found the Lemonade Design Studio and had the pleasure of working with Monica. I highly, highly recommend her services. The design was only $14 and Monica worked with me on colors and every little element. I couldn’t have been happier with how they turned out.
We took the photos of Adeline on our front lawn. I bought the ruffle romper when she was just a few months old from Zulily (they offer them regularly). The background is a lace tablecloth I bought at the flea market for $3. My favorite part is that she is wearing pearls from her great-grandmother. SO special!
For her first birthday party, Adeline wore a birthday girl shirt from Carters and a rainbow sorbet tutu from LouLou Tutu (which I got a great deal on thanks to the now defunct Heartsy). She thought she was pretty fancy. 🙂
The central focus of the pom poms, pennants and pinwheels party decor was a small table that had photos from Adeline’s first year displayed in an old window, which I found at the Nashville Flea Market. The table was covered in a scrap of fabric that I had.
I was inspired to make the window display these after seeing this and something similar on Pinterest. The photos were 3″ squares and eight hung from each row. I hot glued the rope to the window and bought the tiny clothes pins at Michaels.
I also sewed tiny pennants to hang up throughout the party room and one hung on the window. These are so easy to make – just cut triangles and sew together using bias tape. (Check out this tutorial.)
I had note cards on the table for people to write little notes to Adeline.
Pom Poms hung from the ceiling, adding a splash of girly pink to the room. I bought a Martha Stewart pom pom kit at Michaels because they were on sale + I could use a coupon, but I easily could have made them using this tutorial from Jen at Beauty and Bedlam.
Two flower arrangements on the tables included small handmade 4″ pinwheels tucked in them. I made the small and large 12″ pinwheels using this tutorial from Lisa Leonard.
Pinwheels also lined the stairs leading up to our condo. (We also used these in Adeline’s first birthday photoshoot so they got double duty.) They are so easy to make and didn’t cost much since I had tons of scrapbook paper. I used double-sided patterned paper in pinks, greens and yellows. I bought dowels at Home Depot.
I covered our kitchen table in the lace tablecloth that we used in the photoshoot of Adeline. The brunch menu was created thanks to Pinterest and included the following:
- Buttermilk blueberry breakfast cake
- Sausage and egg sourdough casserole
- Fresh fruit
- Doughnuts (for the kids)
- Strawberry cupcakes
I made Adeline’s cake and covered it in buttercream flowers. The Happy Birthday cake toppers were a gift from my friend Lisa Leonard. I love, love, love them! I think we will use them for many birthdays to come.
We hung Adeline’s name banner on her high chair (also by Lisa Leonard). The vintage ABC sign is from Paper Place.
Adeline was so fascinated by the candle flame. We had to hold her hands down and blow it out quickly. 🙂
All in all it was a wonderful first birthday party! YEOW!
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Love, love all the details !! Planning my baby girl’s party in Aug- I have a window frame and have been planning to do the pictures can you tell me where you had the 3″ square photos printed ?
I printed them on my home photo printer, but you could set them up on a 4×6 and have them printed at Walgreens…
What a beautiful birthday! You take the most beautiful pictures and Adeline is one beautiful baby. I’ve been following you online for a while, but I realized that I never seem to comment!
Thanks so much!
I’ve been looking forward to this post! The details are all so beautiful. I especially love your invitation and Adeline’s picture on it. I love doing crafty, creative parties too, and I’m dreading the day Kate wants to do her party at a bouncy place or somewhere else. I suppose I could take my own decor for the party room, but the point of spending $100 on the venue is to not have to do anything yourself–which to most people is a plus, but not for me!
You and me both. 🙂
What a lovely party – every little detail is perfect! Thanks so much for mentioning my invitation design work and linking to my shop, Lemonade Design Studio! I really appreciate it!
Happy Birthday Adeline!
Ack, love love love it! Been waiting for this post and what fun! NOW you have to share the photo shoot pics!
This is all so awesome!!! I have shied away from being crafty but I think you inspired me to at least try!!
The brunch party was such a good idea! I throw big parties for my kids each year and I think brunch sounds so cozy and yummy! I think I may consider doing brunch for our next birthday party! Thanks for the inspiration.
Everything turned out so adorable! I knew it would and couldn’t wait to see the details! Thanks for sharing!!! I’ve developed a passion for pennants, Poms, and pinwheels myself, thanks to Pinterest, so I absolutely LOVED the “theme of your party! Aren’t girly parties SO MUCH FUN to do?!? I just did my daughter’s fourth and I had so much fun crafting and playing up the theme for her. Don’t get me wrong, I have loved doing parties for my three boys too, but girly parties are just way fun for the mommas to plan!!!
I love planning my children’s parties too! I think almost since my last son was born, I have been planning his first birthday party. I am planning a Superhero party for my oldest son, so I am anxious to see what you do for Elias. BTW…I LOVE how the invitation turned out!
I love the attention to detail! Everything is absolutely adorable!
I agree with you about the size of your living space – I really don’t think people even notice or care – they just want to come and have a great time and share in the fun!
Seeing all this stinkin’ adorableness makes me wish blogging/pinterest/etc. had been around when my babies were babies. You put SO much into your littles’ parties and they’re wonderful as a result.
I just love that top piccha of Miss Adeline :).
xo
Thank you friend!
Your attention to detail is something to be admired! The use of the lace tablecloth in the invites and then on the dining table? Good call! A beautiful party for a beautiful little girl 🙂
Such a sweet celebration. Thanks for sharing with us! I’m really impressed by the cake…maybe I should take a Wilton class or something…my little guy doesn’t turn 1 until December… 🙂
I love seeing your first birthday party. Ours is at the end of the month and now that I see your cool birthday breakfast I wish that was what we were doing.
Such a sweet first birthday celebration… makes me long for the days when my kids were young enough to pour my heart and soul into planning their parties!
I wish I would have learned years ago what you already have and that is to have parties and get togethers at your house. I was always hung up with “our house is too small”, “our house isn’t as nice as everyone else’s”, “our house isn’t clean enough”, “we don’t have a pool”, “what are the kids going to do at our house”, etc. Well, you know what? Looking back, our house was just fine and there would have been plenty to do. Kids that age don’t care how big or fancy your house is, and true friends love you and enjoy your friendship for who you are, not how nice the material things are. When we were raising our kids we were in a “Keep Up with the Jones” type neighborhood and I feel into that competitive scene. Big difference between “a house” and “a home”. Thank you for putting that reminder out there.