Big Girl's First Party  1yr

Our second daughter was turning one in January and I wanted to do a special birthday to celebrate how much she had grown over her first year.She was a preemie so she had certainly grown so much!!! She had just learned to do "how big is _____? SO BIG!!!" so I took a picture of her with her hands raised doing "SO BIG" and it came out so cute I decided that it would be the theme.    Invites:  I bought cream colored card stock cards, and mounted the picture on the outside of invite on top of a pale pink with pale yellow polka dot paper. I punched two holes in the top and tied with a coordinating pale yellow ribbon. I had cut the front of the invite to look shorter than the back so when i folded , it created a small flap over the front of the invite. On the flap I printed from computer "Ever so tiny she came into our world...." then on the inside it read "but now our baby Grace is SO BIG!!" Please come celebrate our Big Girl's first birthday!" followed by the rest of the information.   Decorations:  I stuck with the pale/pink yellow theme and used pink yellow balloon, pink plates, cups plastic ware etc. to decorate. TO go along with the SO big theme I took snapshots of Grace (alone, with family etc.) over her first year and displayed them on all of the tables set up...on the food table, gift table..I had put them on pretty pink cloth and tossed curled pink ribbons so they draped over the pictures etc.  I had many many ultrasound pictures of her (almost 40!)  so I displayed them in an album on a main table.  Everyone, especially the kids loved to the look at the ultrasound pictures!! I had her first footprints from her baby book displayed as well and people were so thrilled to see how much her teeny tiny feet had grown. I set out a pair of her preemie baby socks and onesie  to show how TINY she was at birth...next to the real BIG GIRL, then looked miniature!  I made an 8X8 pink scrapbook starting from my pregnancy to present of her first year, journaling all the pages to illustrate her very special first year.  I left two last pages blank and asked guests to sign a note to the birthday girl.  In the front door entry I hung a large piece of white paper (i bought on a large roll from craft store)  I made it as tall as I could and then painted in pink paint "HOW BIG ARE YOU???" on the very top.  I then painted in green a long stem, started in the "grass,  all along the paper until I reached almost to the top, then painted a large pink flower head. (I thought the flower went along with the "growing/so big" theme!) I marked off daughter's birth "height" then her height at one year and then labeled them as "our little baby" and "our BIG GIRL!!". As all of the guests came in, we measured each person against the flower and they signed their name. Everyone loved this and it kept everyone busy as guests were arriving!  ONe of the most precious decorations came as a gift from my daughter's auntie beforehand...she made her a plain cream tablecloth and in light pink paint I put my daughters hand print in the center and then with a thin,black pen, wrote the date.  I plan on doing that every year to celebrate her birthday and mark her growth, and then when she starts her own family/home, she will have a beautiful "hand" table cloth to either use or display!     FOOD: The party started at 11 am (so birthday girl could have her early afternoon nap!!)and I had appetizers out as people arrived (veggies and dip in a JUMBO bread bowl, with BABY carrots,  BABY tomatoes (grape tomatoes), TALL celery stalks).  I also had our main dishes out for when people were done with the measuring stick...and it flowed well.  I had a MINI crossaint sandwiches,a mix of turkey, ham and roast beef, served with a delicous spicy honey mustard sauce.  I also ordered a sandwich ring and cut it into "finger" sandwich size.  I served a pasta and veggie salad, and baked beans to complete the "light-weight" lunch.  I also found a beautiful pink polka dot party hat for our little girl, with pink feathered trim around the bottom and on top and it looked so sweet with her pretty party dress and patent leather shoes!!  CAKE: I actually ordered a picture cake and used  the picture I put on her invitation...instead of usual happy birthday I wrote "Gracie is SOOOO BIG!!". It was white cake with a strawberry filling and everyone LOVED the cake. I used a pink and purple ONE candle.    Favors:  I made up goodie bags that were full of "Mini-small" items to go along with our "SIZE" theme...mini whistles, mini bubbles,  mini lollipops, mini crayons etc.  and tied the clear goodie bags with curly pink and yellow ribbons.   GAMES: I had planned several party games but did not have time to do them because the children and parents were having so much fun just visiting/playing with each other that I decided to let them enjoy what they were doing!  It was a pretty big party and it would have been a little difficult to get everyone to gather in one room to participate!! I had planned to do a BABY BOOK trivia, using her first year facts to quiz her guests.  Towards the end as parents were still visiting, I broke out some of the CRANIUM game Hullaballoo, a great way to get the kids moving and exercise, perfect for an indoor party during the winter!!! The kids had a ball playing!  It was such a sweet birthday party..Im so glad I decided to do something other than just the typical One Party and it was so great being able to look over her first year and share those memories from pictures/clothes/her journal/baby book with all of our family!!