Elise's Sprinkle Themed 1st Birthday Party

Before I had even found out whether Carter was a boy or girl I saw a sprinkle themed birthday party on pinterest and fell in love. I knew if I ever had a girl, her first birthday party would have a sprinkle theme. Fast forward about 4 years and I was planning a sprinkle themed first birthday for my precious Elisey Kay! It was pretty easy planning because I already had a lot of ideas in my head for what I wanted. There would be sprinkles on cupcakes, sprinkles on Oreos, sprinkles on wafers, sprinkles on cake, sprinkles on cookies, sprinkles in vases. Basically there were going to be sprinkles everywhere, including my house, for probably the next year! I also wanted to do some of the same things I'd done for Carter's party like the monthly photo display and a birthday banner. The nice thing about this being the fourth birthday we've planned and the third one we've hosted at our house is we already knew how we would set things up and what works the best as far as seating. I had the perfect invitation in my head. I wanted one with space for monthly photos to be added and I wanted the word one written out in sprinkles, but the trick was where to find it. Then one of my college friends and cross country teammates posted on facebook that she had opened a shop on Etsy to design invitations and such, check out her store here. I contacted her and she created the most amazing and adorable invitations that were everything I had been hoping for. I giggled every time I looked at them as I printed them and cut them out. I still love them so much!

I boxed out our address and my contact info, those boxes aren't on the actual invite.

I put Ty in charge of figuring out food and told him I had been thinking of some kind of chicken because Elise LOVES chicken! He ended up going with Raising Canes and my parents offered to buy it for the party which was awesome! Ty's mom made a pasta salad to go with it and we served cut up carrots and some sugar snap peas as vegetables along with strawberries, apples, and oranges for fruits. I made pink lemonade to pour into some cups I decorated by dipping the rim in vanilla Almond Bark and then putting it into our non pariels sprinkles. I think those contributed to the sprinkles getting everywhere the most, but they were so cute and worth it!

Our adorable sprinkle cups!

The food table.

What our sprinkle vases looked like. I love daisies!

I bought these mason jars for a Mother's Day project while teaching and had 25 students. The packages had 24 so I had to buy a second case just for one jar. I was so irritated and didn't think I'd ever use the left overs. I've used them so many times, it's crazy!

For dessert I made funfetti cupcakes topped with buttercream icing and sprinkles. I also made Elise's smash cake and used a 1 cookie cutter to corral the sprinkles into a 1 shape in the middle. Ty's mom made delicious sugar cookies topped with buttercream icing and you guessed it, sprinkles! I made Oreo pops by adding a cookie pop stick to the middle and then dipping the Oreos in vanilla almond bark and sprinkles. I put sprinkles on the tip of strawberry wafer cookies the same way. To finish off the dessert table I added a bowl of the frosted animal crackers because they are also covered in sprinkles.
 

The dessert table.

Ty rigged up a jar with a plate covered in foil because I wanted the cake up higher than the cupcakes so it would stand out.

The cookies Ty's mom made and decorated.

The wafers with a stray cupcake that didn't fit on the cupcake tier.

Oreo pops.

I wanted to have some kind of sprinkle related craft and kept racking my brain trying to come up with something that wouldn't be crazy messy like putting glue on paper and pouring sprinkles to make a picture. Then Ty's mom sent a sugar cookie recipe we'd asked her for and I knew what our activity would be! We set up a cookie decorating station for the kids. Ty's mom brought the cookies not decorated and decorated some day of, leaving quite a few for the cookie station. She mixed up different colors of buttercream icing in bowls and then we set out a couple sprinkle containers. Ty had the genius idea to put out a cookie sheet and have the kids set their cookie in it to add the sprinkles so the cookie sheet would catch most of the sprinkles. It was definitely my most successful party activity as every child of appropriate age participated. The best part was the 3 boys all decorated their cookies at the same time! As party favors I found some polka dotted cups along with the bowls we put fruits and vegetables in while walking in the Easter section with Carter. Then I filled them with the frosted animal crackers, threw in a couple wafers, and added a thank you note. I thought they turned out pretty cute!

The decorating station.

The decorating table and the kids table, we put a lid on that jar of sprinkles!

The party favors for the kids.

 

As far as decorations went we kept things pretty simple. I cut circles out of scrapbook paper and then Ty freehanded numbers and glued them on for Elise's month photos. I then glued scrapbook paper to clothespins and used them to clip the photos to ribbon and hung it across our mantle above the fireplace. Ty and I worked together to create a Happy Birthday pendant banner which we hung with ribbon over the windows by the food table. Then I used pink streamers and steamers with yellow, blue, and pink zigzags to decorate everything else. I put streamers on the fireplace and across a few other places along with Elise's high chair tray.

The month photo display and fireplace decorated.

 

This shows the birthday banner.

The best part of the decorations was Elise's outfit, of course! She painted her onesie with fabric paint. I used painter's tape to make a one in the middle of her shirt and then let her go to town with pink and purple paint. She wore that paired with a pink tutu skirt and her pink converse high tops. I was really looking forward to seeing her sweet chubby thighs at the party and the weather had been in the 80's all week, but of course on party day the high was in the low 60's so I put tights on under her skirt. It still looked absolutely adorable! Equally as exciting as Elise turning one was the fact that her Uncie J was at her party! Once Jeremy left for rehab in Houston, my hope was he would return in time to be at her birthday party. I knew it just wouldn't feel right without him there. Miraculously enough he did so well he was able to return home with 11 days to spare! It was so nice looking over and seeing him watch Elise smash into her cake. Everything was right in my world again!

 

 

Elise went down for her morning nap a bit late so she was fashionably late to her party, arriving a bit after 11:30. She made the rounds saying hello to everyone and played with her BFF Addison before moving on to lunch. We fed Elise first and then everyone else went through and made their plates. Immediately following lunch Carter, Hayden, and Grant all decorated cookies and ate them which started off the dessert eating.

Elise and Addison with my mom.

 

Carter, Hayden, and Grant eating some lunch.

The boys decorating cookies.

Carter trying out a sprinkle cup.

Grant actually bit off the Almond bark to eat the sprinkles, it was hilarious!

After everyone was finished eating lunch we brought out Elise's smash cake. As we were singing her "Happy Birthday" Ty was holding the cake over by her tray and she reached over and snatched some icing off the side of the cake. He hadn't even set the cake down on her tray yet before she started digging into it. At one point I pulled a chunk off for her and she picked it up and started taking bites out of it. She really got into it but preferred the icing, just like her brother and mommy!

 

 

 

The camera was a bit out of focus, but I still love this family picture!

 

 

Pretty much right after the smash cake we moved on to presents. Everything was pretty fast and furious since we started the party late. Elise enjoyed opening her presents, but not quite as much as Addison did. Addison loved pulling tissue paper out of the gift bags which made me really excited for her birthday party in a month! We got Elise a bubble machine because every time they get it out at the end of storytime she freaks out and squeals so excitedly all the other parents at storytime are laughing and watching her along with me. While the boys were playing outside I turned it on for Elise and Addison inside and they LOVED it! When I turned it off I went to get the Bona to clean the floor and when I came back Elise was trying to crawl through the bubble liquid on the floor and was sliding all over eventually rolling to her back and getting her hair all wet. Her Gma just couldn't stop laughing and I wished it was on video because it would have been perfect for America's Funniest Home Videos! Then I took it outside for all the kids to play with and it was a hit! Elise also got a hair salon table from her Gma and Gpa and all the kids played with that as well as the car she got from her Auntie Erin.

 

 

Hayden and Carter styling Leina's hair with the new toys.

Carter blow drying Elise's hair.

Addison and Elise playing with the car.

 

Elise's party was so much fun and was a huge success! Addison and Elise had so much fun and so did the older boys! As always it was a joint effort to put together and I appreciated all the help from our families to make it such a memorable event for the kids. I'm already looking forward to another girly themed birthday party next year! It sure was fun to plan!