party on

there are two ways to celebrate your kiddo's first birthday.

you can either have a quiet intimate party with just family.

or you can have a huge bash and invite everyone

to celebrate THAT YOU MADE IT A YEAR

... and so did your kid.

we are choosing the latter of the two.

a big ol' birthday party for my little girl.

especially since my friends and i made a deal a long time ago 

that we would only subject each other to our kids' first birthday

and then we were off the hook.

so this is my one and only year to invite all our friends,

and after that, just family.
(sorry family, you're stuck with us.)

i like it because i get to throw one huge party,

but i don't have to do it every year.

in fact, jaime and i already decided that after

this year we are going to have

madeline and brette's parties together.

their bdays are only 10 days apart so

it makes it easier on our family to combine them.

score. that will be fun.

 

i have a couple months before the big day,

but i've already started planning.

i was trying to decide between

a watermelon theme (hot pink, light pink and mint green) 

or hot air balloons (coral, mint green, light blue)

i went with hot air balloons.

they are so darn cute and since i'm

obviously going to try hard not to

spend a ton on the party this one was also

the cheaper option since i already have some items

leftover from my hot air balloon baby shower

and couple things from brette's room.
my artistic aunt is busy working on the invites and

my cool cousin offered up all the party decorations
from her daughter's bday a couple weeks ago.

um yes, thank you!

this changed my color pallet a bit, but it is so budget-friendly

and her decorations were so cute that i didn't care.

the new color pallet is aqua, yellow and coral.

so fun and fresh.

i can't wait.

 

here are a few of the ideas i'm working on.

 

 

if you have any money-saving party tips

or any great hot air balloon ideas

send them my way!

 

56 days left...