My oldest daughter will be 8 later this month (WHAT?!?!). I was looking back through some pictures of her birthdays over the years, and realized how much I’ve enjoyed creating simple birthday parties.
Celebrations don’t have to take so much preparation and time that they leave you exhausted and unable to enjoy the day. Here’s what I did for my daughter’s first birthday.
Most parties begin with a theme, right? One-year-old Abby had this stuffed cow… one where you pressed it’s hand (hoof?) and the mouth moved and the foot tapped and it sang “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” For weeks she was fascinated by the thing. She wouldn’t go down for a nap unless she could watch it while snuggling with me. And that’s where the idea for this party came from.
Decorations were super simple. Colors of black, white, and pink.
- B&W balloons, big mylar cow balloon, cow napkins, and cow cupcake liners came from cowdepot.com (this was back before I shopped on Amazon)
- Pink balloons, pink tablecloth, pink cups, black and white and pink utensils and plates from the dollar store.
- One small stuffed cow to hold down some balloons, also from the dollar store.
- The cowbells were actually leftover from our wedding 5 years prior… we had had our reception outside in a tent, and wrote our names and the date in black Sharpie on white cowbells. They were for the usual ring-the-bell-get-the-couple-to-kiss tradition. They were also for guests to take home. We took some of the leftovers and filled in more black Sharpie to make them look like cows for the party.
Food = typical summer fare. Burgers, brats, chips, crackers, watermelon. Pink punch.
One tradition I’ve done with all three of my kids is to take pictures of them each month for their first two years. It’s a fun way to watch them grow, and makes for great birthday decorations. 🙂 Also used for decorating: books from our shelves that had anything to do with cows and farming.
I made dark chocolate cupcakes (from a box!) and topped them with vanilla frosting (from a can!), and vanilla cupcakes topped with dark chocolate frosting. I did put a few drops of black food coloring in the chocolates to make them as dark as possible.
I made a marbled cake for Abby’s little smash cake from some of the cupcake batter. I baked it in a 4-cup Pyrex container, and it was the perfect size for a smash cake.
And after all the time (not!) that I put into her cake? She only picked at the frosting. Very delicately. No smashing was involved. No cakes were harmed in the filming of this day.
P.S. Her shirt from cafepress.com said “Holy cow, I’m ONE already?”
It really was a simple event to prepare. A little bit of cheap decorating, dinner food that we would have eaten as a regular summer meal anyway, delicious cake from a box. No games. Just an enjoyable evening with family and friends.
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