Our Little Lady's Birthday Party

Her biggest smile of the day!

Looking back through the pictures of her party, I feel like my mom did after my senior prom.  She didn't get one picture of me by myself all dressed up.  Well that's what I let happen to Madeline. There really weren't any pictures of her by herself.  However, her best picture was with her Uncle Delton so that's not as bad as with some old boyfriend.

Anyway...

Her party was Ladybug/Flower themed. I knew it would be months earlier. She loves her Ten Little Ladybug Book so that was the actual theme I guess you'd say.  I had a ton of ideas for her party and little funds to execute them with, but everything turned out perfect.  I printed out Michael's/Hobby Lobby coupons for weeks to purchase what I needed and stay within budget. Luckily my mom found her the perfect Birthday Princess outfit so I didn't have to worry about wardrobe.

Cheesing for the cameras

I made her birthday banner using picnik. Each letter had a pic of her and they were in chronological order. This combined 2 ideas I had (a banner of her 1st year in pictures & a homemade Happy BDay Madeline banner)

I used tissue from gifts from her showers and some I found a HL to make flower pom poms to hang. She loves these. I stuck some ladybug stickers on them. (A month later they are still hanging b/c she loves them so much. One of her favorite things to do is find the ladybugs. They may still be up at xmas.)

I found flower cut outs at the teacher store and stuck ladybug stickers on them. I accompanied these with cute pictures of Madeline to finish off the table decor. Also, her dinomite daddy bought her some beautiful Gerber daisies.

Love this pic of her!

Pink and green were the main colors, and luckily I found cute polka dotted plates and napkins. They looked great in the easter basket that I found that was decorated w/ daisies and ladybugs. If you can't tell I love a good theme and finding things to go with it.  

The party was from 2-4 so we just had pickup foods- fruit, veggies, cheese and crackers.

the spread

I knew I wanted to make cupcakes. They're much easier to make, decorate, serve, and eat. (At least they are for me.) With the help of coupons I was able to buy the precolored fondant 50% off and I found some flower cookie cutters to use. I used my favorite bundt cake recipe (just modified the baking time) and I had enough batter left over for her a little smash cake. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Everything turned out beautiful! I'm pretty proud of myself. The cupcakes were all me, and I must give a special thank you to Mamaw for helping to execute Mommy's vision for the smash cake.

Also her Daddy is so great at making oreo truffles. She just had to have them at her party. I had envisioned making them look like ladybugs, but it was getting late so we ditched that idea, dipped them in dark chocolate and stuck a fondant flower on the top of each one. Much easier and actually much cuter I think. Thank you Scott.  Check out these cute pictures of the little lady and her daddy!

I thought she'd tear into her cake and dad thought she'd be more hesitant.  Well Daddy was right.  She ate a ladybug or two off of it and then just picked around a bit.

We just invited our families and enjoyed having them over at our house. Scott's family finally got to meet the famous Mason and Zoe, whom I talk about all the time. All the cousins made it and got along great. The aunts were great to bring toys to play with in the backyard.

Madeline got tons of presents. She is quite the blessed little lady! She totally remembered how to open presents from Christmas and started without any help.  Luckily, she had taken a great morning nap. Thanks to Uncle Delton for tuckering her out that morning! I was so fearful of a meltdown. I've seen this happen to other kids and it makes for some not so great pictures. The only time she cried was when cousin Heidi almost flipped on her head, but a quick cuddle from Mama and she was fine. No afternoon nap, but she was still pretty smiley.

I think she had a great time. It seemed like she knew we were there celebrating her, and she just ate it up. I was so happy with how all the ideas in my head actually were accomplished. I'm really looking forward to her 2nd birthday party (not the idea of her turning 2). I just have to wait and see what she's interested in and then I can pick a new theme.

Here are some other cute pics from the day.