It is hard to believe but our daughter is officially one! We celebrated with a low key day on Virginia Parker's actual birthday before celebrating with friends and family in our backyard on a beautiful May afternoon. The last year has absolutely flown by. I get emotional when thinking about how quickly my girl is growing but each new day is so exciting with her.
When I first started planning, I knew I wanted to have her first birthday in our backyard. I was praying we would have beautiful weather as I didn't have much of a rain plan, and sure enough, it ended up being a sunny (and hot) afternoon. Stephen worked long and hard on our backyard in the months leading up to her party as it needed some work. Funny enough, the night before her actual birthday, we lost power for an unknown reason and the power company had to dig quite the hole in our backyard to fix the problem. Thankfully, it wasn't in a spot where grass had been freshly laid but it will certainly be a funny memory and story to tell.
When planning her party, I wanted to keep with a simple and classic pink and white theme. I made a crest for her invitations that we ended up using on several things, including her cake and favors. Despite my comments during pregnancy that I wouldn't put my tiny daughter in a huge bow, it's become something she wears quite often so I used a sweet bow detail as well.
I ordered her cakes from Whole Foods and asked them to match her invitation. We did a vanilla with strawberry buttercream icing cake for our guests as well as cupcakes and did a smaller little vanilla cake for VPW to smash. She was so cute and delicate as she took tiny bites! Below the cakes, I hung photos of her from the last 12 months. I made little month signs to go on each one, using tiny clips to attach to gingham ribbon.
We decided to rent a bounce house for the backyard and I would do it again in a heartbeat. VP absolutely loved it as did her cousins and friends - and her mama did too! Virginia Parker loved to bounce on her own, show off her front rolls she's learned at baby gymnastics, and be held all around the bounce house. Coastal Bounce Houses was amazing in that they came and set up and broke down and I loved the all-white castle that fit in perfectly with the rest of her theme.
For other backyard activities, we set up this blow-up pool and added in play balls instead of water and the babies of the party had the best time. This is also such a great backyard activity for when you're spending time outside and I love that it is a multi-function play option.
We kept the food simple for the two o'clock in the afternoon party. We did sandwich, vegetable, and fruit platters from Publix, the always popular nuggets from Chick-fil-a and I made pasta salad to go along with those. I found some adorable cupcake tins from Home Goods and they made the perfect little dishes for baby gold fish and Pirate's Booty. And of course, we served apple sauce pouches for the littles as well!
We set up this beautiful high chair (borrowed from a sweet friend) in the backyard for cake time! Virginia Parker was so sweet with her cake and loved to delicately eat it. Her party hat was gifted to us from Little Happies - and it fit in perfectly with the theme!
Another way to commemorate her first birthday was this beautiful milestone commission done by Christy Britt Designs. I've had my eye on her work for awhile and this felt like the perfect keepsake to display at her party as well as to keep in her room as she grows up.
I also ordered this adorable mini cake stand and plate from Holly Slay Designs with her birthday. I used it as part of her display for her party but used the precious plate for her birthday morning cinnamon roll, which I think will be a monthly tradition!
For favors, we went with decorative cookies and bubbles. My Gals Cookies made some beautiful cookies for a baby shower my cousins threw for be last spring. I used that similar concept for cookies and it only seemed fitting to have Sophie cookies as well since VP loves her puppy and they share the same birthday! The silver platter we used belonged to Stephen's grandmother. She passed away a few short months before we welcomed VPW and she was just so thrilled that we were about to welcome a daughter. It felt special to use a piece of hers at her party.
Stick bubbles are a hit at our house so I attached a little thank you note to each one.
I am still in awe that her first birthday has come and gone. It feels like just yesterday that we were in the hospital holding our tiny newborn and we now have a sweet, inquisitive, exploring little girl. We are so thankful for you, our precious Virginia Parker. We love you so very much!
Details:
VP's Outfit: Smocked Auctions
Hair bow: Wee Ones (clipped to a headband)
Party Hat & #1 Cake Topper: c/o Little Happies
High Chair: Borrowed from a friend
High Chair Banner: Etsy
Cakes: Whole Foods
Birthday Plate & Mini Cake Stand: Holly Slay
Monogram & #1 Balloons: Float Balloons
Balloon Arch: Amazon
Bounce House: Coastal Bounce Castles
Cookies: My Gals
Milestone Print: Christy Britt Designs
Pink Blowup Pool / Ball Pit: Target
Gold Bar Cart: Wayfair
The dresser was one of the first things I worked on because it was the first piece of furniture in the nursery. I've moved some things around but so far this is what has worked! The top two large drawers are for things that I think we will use the most, so on the left I have newborn and 0-3 month onesies and gowns and on the right, I have diapers, wipes and other diapering necessities. From there, I just worked my way down in organization.
I found these dividers from The Container Store and they work great! They're perfect for dividing out the outfits and getting more out of the space (those little outfits are tiny!). I watched a few videos on ways to fold onesies and figured out what worked best. Who knows if they will stay that way but for now it works well! I also found this organizer set and used them in both this dresser and our taller chest.
The nursery has the smallest closet out of any room in the house and has a fairly basic wire rack system. While I would have ideally liked to completely redo the closet, we decided to work with what was in there. I added a 4-cube storage unit on the bottom left and added these baskets from The Container Store.
I also added these medium baskets to the wire shelving to organize and contain all of the tiny things that were floating around in the closet. I had the liners embroidered by Lumina Embroidery and love that they add some character to the space.
We added this dresser (and added these bow knobs) and it was the perfect addition to the space for organization. I used some of the cubes from this organization set to organize a few of the drawers as well as these little white bins from Target. I have a feeling I'll be redoing the top two rows once we get into a schedule but for now, it works for all of her little accessories.
A few miscellaneous storage things:
- Larger size outfits that aren't hung are in storage cubes
- Extra diapers (newborn and size 1) are in a flat storage bin under the crib
- Larger diaper boxes are in a guest room closet tucked away
- Books are all in a basket by the crib
- Toys are tucked into this wicker bin in the corner
While I wanted to have a place for every little thing in the nursery, I have no doubt that the nursery will organized, reorganized and then organized again over the course of the first weeks and months we have the baby at home. I'm excited to finally have our little girl in her sweet room!
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