connor's 1st birthday party

Have I mentioned that I'm sick of throwing parties?  Have I also mentioned that I'm the lucky host of Thanksgiving next week?

This one had me so stressed I almost ralphed before everyone got there.  

Apart from the negativity, though, it was a great party.  As always!  We have some amazing family and friends - my boys are always showered with so much love.

I pinter-est-ed it up with this party - just about everything you see has already been done by someone with much more time on their hands (not to mention much more imagination).

What better fall food than chili?  And two-fer-a-dollar fritos?

The only food it seems I'm able to make at parties is soup, something I can make ahead of time and throw in a crockpot.  I used an all-purpose chili recipe, nothing fancy at all...meat, beans, tomatoes, pre-made seasoning packet.  You guys, it was really really good.  I had all the fixings for chili dogs & chili nachos as well.

Check out the burlap around the appalling crockpot.  (Pinterest, not me.)  After thinking about where I was going to get all these dumb crafty things I headed over to Walmart, my archenemy.  Have you even been there lately?  They have it all!  Striped straws, rolls of burlap, chalkboard signs, errrrrthing.  I never thought I'd say "Walmart for the win" but there it is.

All the other paper products and such came from Target, obvi.

You know how I'm always trying to make a fabulous cake for my kids' parties?  This fluffy white cake with whipped vanilla bean frosting was pretty good, but a little....different?  I made the cakes ahead of time and had them in the fridge a couple of days - I really think that took away from the flavor, but the frosting was wonderful.  Did you know that one vanilla bean costs $4.98 at the grocery?  Being the scientist that I am, I did some light reading (yeah right, you know I printed out pages of research to present to my students) and found that it's the second most expensive spice after saffron because of how labor-intensive it is to grow the seed pods.  

For the mini cake bunting I used the same printable template from TomKat Studio that I used for Patrick's 2nd birthday party.  I mean, these people that give out free printables are like saints.

The white cake plate was a new purchase, and one I didn't want to make.

A couple days before the party the boys broke my absolute favorite glass cake plate AND the lid.  It was a wedding present, so I was pretty devastated.  And by pretty devastated I mean I finally broke down and bawled like a baby about all my nice stuff being ruined by these kids.  Dammmmmit.  In all fairness, though, I had the cake plate on the lowest shelf in our pantry...

This pallet display of monthlies was my inspiration for the entire party - isn't it the coolest?!  Jeff brought the pallet from the farm, I used basic poster paint and a square-tipped paintbrush for the "Connor Is One," I bought small squares of fabric from our local fabric store, cut them into triangles and taped them over with temporary sewing tape.  It probably took two hours total to construct.  And the next 48 hours to keep it from being torn apart by the birthday boy.

PS - Have you seen all the amazing things you can do with refurbished pallets?  Just search that up on Pinterest.  It's incredible.

Don't forget your balloons - those things keep kids entertained for like 30 minutes.

This is me being more excited than Connor about the blanket my sister sewed for him.  I am obsessed with the colors and everything else about it.  Thanks sooooooo much Aunt Linds!

This piece of crap airplane was the biggest hit for the boys.  The wings go up and down, the propeller spins and lights up, it talks to you - it was super fun until the batteries ran out one week later.  Way to go, Target.  (Has anyone else found that their toy section totally sucks?)

Crushed it.

Great baby boy, great party, great family.  Happiest of birthdays, my little super star!




//invitations via