Birthday Party - 1

I did put some work into Tessa's first birthday party, and since the majority of you were not there, I want you to see every detail!

Although I wanted to keep it simple, I still wanted something special for our special girl.  I was inspired by some plastic popcorn tins in the $1 section at target, and decided to throw a circus party.  The next step was trying to find an invitation.  I LOVE the website Etsy, and was really happy to how our Christmas card turned out which I found on there (and I love supporting local, and usually stay-at-home Moms).  I found the perfect invite at the store Announcing You.

And yes, I took the photo as well.  I wanted to do this for a long time, and to make sure I got it right, I practiced on some of Tessa's friends during this past year.  (Thanks Jaxson, Jake and Chase)

The invitation gave me a color scheme to go off of as well.  I headed over to Joann's to pick some fabrics to accent the party.  I made several length of bunting with it to hang up, as well as accent the table.

I also found some cute foam animals at Joanns that I made into cupcake toppers.  We made the cupcakes the night before, and frosted them the day of.

I also made a custom silhouette from her cake smash photo session that I hung on the wreath on the front door, so everyone knew they were at the right place.

I found party hats at Party City, and customized them with pom-poms on top.  Tessa's hat was special in that I hot glued pom-poms all the way around the bottom, too!

Staying with the circus theme, we had hamburgers and hot dogs for the main meal, and had nachos, popcorn, peanuts, cotton candy and animal crackers. (we gave the cotton candy and animal crackers to the kids a favors, as well as a giant animal balloon).

The morning of, Scott picked up our balloons.  I didn't get a picture of all of them, but if anyone else did, send it to me!  (Scott's mad I didn't document his great selection of helium products).  I also didn't take any pictures of the front windows, where I hung photo's of Tessa taken throughout the year.

For entertainment, we brought all of Tessa's "big toys" into the backyard for everyone to play on.

It was a great success.  And the best part is that I can reuse everything!  Anyone else want to throw a circus party soon?