1st birthday party: Winnie the Pooh style!

Let me preface this blog post by giving a HUGE thank you to Lindsay Cloer!  She made the cutest food items for this birthday party among many other things including the pictures I am about to post...Grace loves her aunt Lulu.  Instead of me rambling on and on about the birthday party being Pinterest worthy (yep, I am totally posting it!) I decided to tell the story with pictures.  It's more fun that way for all involved :)  I'll end by saying how incredibly blessed Jimmy and I are that God gave us the gift of a beautiful, healthy baby girl.  The first year with her has been amazing!!  We can't wait to have more babies...but yet we can, and will, for now :)  Don't get too excited people...thank you for following our story and for loving our family!

Winnie the Pooh and hunny pot cake pops

hunny pot cupcakes :)  Those are edible bees!  Super cheap off ebay...

My nana's butter cookie recipe brought to life...from scratch! 

Here is the "Happy 1st Birthday" banner I made for Grace.  Fortunately all of the Winnie the Pooh paper was free...since Lindsay happened to have some.  I bought the ribbon and stencils to write the letters.  A.C. Moore coupons are always available online!

A close up shot...this idea came from Pinterest, I just created it my way :)

Winnie the Pooh decor :)  Thanks to Lindsay for buying and to Jimmy's parents for the wooden decoration...that is from Grace's room.

The green hunny pot is a decoration from Grace's room (aka free!).  Cheap $1 yellow buckets turned into hunny pots with puppy chow.  The cookies are balloons with Twizzler pull-n-peel candy for the strings!

Party favors courtesy Linday :)  The owl decoration is also hers and I already had the picture frame in the house...all it took was some stickers from a scrapbooking stash.

Stuffed animals: free from Grace's room.  The clothesline of pictures idea came from Pinterest.  I printed off a picture (at 13 cent a piece) from each month of Grace's life and hung them in chronological order with a sign that says "12 Months of Grace".  The clothespins and ribbon were less than $3 bucks.

Another Pinterest idea...all I paid for were the pictures which Costco happened to be running a 9 cent per picture deal...pretty sweet!  This hung in the entrance doorway.

This is the backside of a huge picture collage in the shape of a number 1!  People got to read this poem on their way out.

Linday did a fabulous job on Grace's smash cake including Winnie the Pooh, a huny pot and Piglet cake pops for decor. 

There were SOOO many littles at the party!  Here is Grace with her bud, Vivienne.

Playing with Uncle Jordan and Darby.

Vivienne and Brooke

Playing with Abigail

Lucas brought a cute present for Grace...a tractor with a girl driver!

Elliot and Lucas playing with the toys...Grace is playing with the packaging, haha.

It's time to turn 1!  I made the banner for about a dollar if you include all materials used :)

Happy birthday to Grace!

Technology benefits: we were able to skype with Jimmy's parents in Florida and with Lindays's husband, David, currently stationed in Kuwait.  VERY special!

Haaaayyyy!

More friends, Holly and Kellen

Using Caroline to stand up :)

Fun new kitchen set from Memere and Pepere

Not sure what we were soo excited about...probably Elmo!

PHEW...we were exhausted after the party but truly feel we were also able to enjoy the whole party!  Thanks again to our friends and family for making the day so special.