Presley's Party

We had Presley's 1st birthday party this past Saturday. We had a pretty small, low key affair, with mostly family and close friends there to help us celebrate. I have had a tendency in the past to go kind of overboard with Mattie's parties and unnecessarily stress myself out, and I just made up my mind I was not going to do that this time. Not because I love Presley any less, or feel that she's any less deserving of an overdone party, I've just realized it's really not worth it. For a lot of reasons. A baby needs a cake, a few presents, and little else to celebrate. What they don't need is a mama who is so tired and worn out by party time that she barely enjoys it, and she forgets to pass out the cookie favors she stayed up all night working on (oh yes, been there). Y'all, I didn't even buy balloons or streamers this time. And it was still great!

With that said, I decided there were a few details I wanted to to make special, and the rest would kinda fall into place. I decided a few months ago we would do an owl theme, for no other reason than I found a fabric I loved and wanted to use, and it happened to have owls on it. With all the sewing orders I've had stacking up, I knew it was going to be near impossible to squeeze in sewing for my girls, but I decided to just pencil them in on my schedule just like a regular order a few weeks ago, and had it done way before the party. Old Ashley would have waited until the night before. Part of me wanted to applique a big "1" on this outfit, but I decided against it so that she could wear it longer and it not look like just a party outfit.

I was recently asked by one of my favorite pattern makers, Little Lizard King, to test a super cute skirt pattern, and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to make Mattie something to wear to the party. She LOVED that she got to match Presley for her big day, and she declared days before the party that ONLY people that had owl outfits on could help open presents....clever girl. No other owl outfits showed up!

I ordered Presley's b-day invites from an Etsy shop I found. She designed them, sent me the file, and I printed them at Wal-Mart. If you've never done this, I hightly recommend it. Very inexpensive way to get cute, custom invites without the high cost or hassle of doing them yourself. I even sent her a pic of my fabric, and she matched the colors to our party. Much easier than the handmade invites I've done in the past, and just as cute, I think.

I did make Presley's party hat, and I did wait until the night before to do it. But, super easy, super quick, and she actually wore it!!

I opted to do cupcakes instead of a cake this time. I did these the morning of the party, and I thought they looked great on the cupcake stand:

These cupcake toppers were another Etsy find. I LOVE them, and again they were very reasonably priced, and she matched them to my fabric and they're personalized with Presley's name. Who doesn't love a cupcake?

Here's the party table. We did the party at a beautiful pavillion at our local arboretum, and the weather could not have been more beautiful and perfect. You can't see it well in this picture, but I printed off all of Presley's monthly pictures, and had them on the table.

When we had Mattie's first birthday, she barely touched her "smash" cake. She's always been a girl who didn't like a mess, but I had a feeling Presley would dive right in, and I was right. She knew just what to do, and smash it she did.

Her smash cake was something I threw together very quickly from my leftover cupcake batter and icing. That is to say, it was very, very basic and kinda pitiful looking, but I figured it was a going to be smashed anyway, so who cares? She ate a pretty good portion of it!

I've said here many times, and it's the truth, what a good big sister Mattie has been. This entire year she has gracefully grown into her role of big sister, and we have seen little, if any, jealousy or acting out. Well, it seems that she must have been bottling all those feelings and saving them up to spill forth at Presley's party. We have had issues with Mattie at other birthday parties when it comes time to open presents...she wants to be right up in the middle, with her hands on everything, and has even been so bold at some parties as to tear into gifts before the birthday girl or boy can get to them. She just can't help herself when it comes to the presents, and Presley's party was no exception. We had agreed with her beforehand that she would be allowed to assist Presley, but she would not take over (even if she was wearing an Owl suit!). And about the third or fourth time I had to tell her to stop it or get back, she fell apart. Meltdown fit. Not pretty, not cute, not fun for anybody. I know it had to do with all the attention Presley was getting, and it was sad to watch. I had her remove herself from the party and go sit on a bench outside of the immediate party area, which only made her cry harder, and this went on for a little while until a grandparent took her for a walk to calm down. She even missed singing "Happy Birthday" to Presley and seeing her eat her smash cake, which made me sad because she would have loved it, but it is what it is.

My little walker:

And that was about it. Matthew and I got Presley a two seater wagon for her gift, and my girls have made me pull them miles and miles in it already. I think this will be my new workout...dragging 70+ lbs of children all over the neighborhood as they lounge comfortably in their wagon seats, eating goldfish and sipping juice while they watch the passing scenery and I huff and puff up hill after hill. Sounds about right.

Happy Birthday, little PK!! You are greatly adored by everyone who knows you, but no one loves you like your mama does ♥