Princess Party 1yr - Pin Tiara on the Princess

For my daughter Gabrielle's first birthday I wanted to plan something special.  She is our youngest of five and I wanted her birthday to be a big deal, but I needed to stay within a reasonable budget.  I found party ware that I fell in love with.  It was fuchsia with a big pink heart that said 1st Birthday Princess and above that was a silver tiara with a large fuchsia heart-shaped gem in it surrounded by little flowers, stars, hearts and butterflies.  It was a little pricey, so I just bought the tablecloth, cake plates, mylar balloon, and a little tiara that matched.  I found complimentary princess party ware at a local Dollar Tree store. 

INVITATIONS:  I used the invitations from the dollar store.  They were pink with a silver and fuchsia holograpiic heart in the center and said - Princess - with a tiara, wand, necklace, ring, glass slipper and purse all with heart details surrounding it.  There were also little white stars sprinkled throughout.  I added little number 1 stickers to the heart on the wand.  I filled out the information for the party with a fuchsia pen and used Disney Sleeping Beauty stamps. 

DECORATIONS:  On our foyer table I placed a few pictures of Gabrielle.  The first was a trio of pictures of her in a pink diaper cover sitting/laying on a bed of pink and fuchsia flower petals.  The other was another professional picture of her in her birthday dress holding a heart-shaped wand, this was placed in a pink frame with fuchsia hearts and a little crown with a number 1 on it.  Also on the table was a jar of chocolate kisses and a sheet of paper that had an adorable little frog with a crown on it and said - How many kisses? - with lines for everyone to write their name and guess.  Next to these I placed a yard ornament frog wearing a crown with a rose in his mouth holding a sign stating - Kiss Me.  To write the guesses, I had a pink pen with a frilly crown on top.  I arranged a silver, fuchsia, white and pink sash to run through everything on the table and tie it all together and sprinkled confetti all over. 

The confetti was pink stars and flowers, silver stars and hearts and fuchsia hearts.  I used the game table in our living room for a gift table.  I strung pink streamers around the edge of the table and placed 6 pink latex balloons that said - 1st Birthday Girl - they were tied to a pink shiny balloon weight and I sprinkled more confetti on the table.  In our dining room we hung alternating pink and white streamers from our chandelier to the walls to form a canopy.  From the bottom of the chandelier hung a silver and fuchsia heart shaped decoration that said - Princess - and had littler silver hearts and swirls hanging down from it.  It looked so pretty hanging over the table.  On the dining room table I placed the coveted 1st Birthday Princess tablecloth.  The center was white, so I added confetti there also. 

On one wall hung a banner that was pink, fuchsia and purple and said - HAPPY BIRTHDAY - in between happy and birthday was a circle that said - PRINCESS - and had a tiara, wand, necklace, earrings and ring all with heart details.  On another wall was a poster of a princess for one of our games.  Gabrielle's highchair was decorated with pink streamers and attached to it was the mylar balloon that said - 1st Birthday Princess.  My husband has a large family and since we were doing a brunch, I knew that the dining room would not be enough seating for everyone, so we also used the table and chairs in our game room for the older kids.  That table had a pink plastic tablecloth and in the center I placed a matching holographic centerpiece that said - Princess - and sprinkled more confetti around it. In our guest bathroom, I wrote with blue washable marker - Mirror, mirror on the wall… Who's the fairest of them all?  The food was served in the kitchen.  I purchased a castle utensil caddy that said - Princess - on the drawbridge and used it to hold heart-shaped plates that matched the invitations, matching napkins and pink plastic ware, each in its appropriate place. 

ATTIRE:  Gabrielle wore a dress with a pink top with a little princess frog in a pink tulle tutu holding a wand, the skirt part of the dress was black and white checked with pink tulle underneath and had big clear gem buttons with pink ribbon detail.  She also had on pink tights and black dress shoes.  Her little tiara was silver and pink with pink flower petals on the headband and said 1st Birthday Princess with little fuchsia and silver hearts.  She looked completely adorable.  Two of her brothers wore knight's costumes and her older sister wore an outfit with silver hearts and a silver princess cone hat. 

ACTIVITIES:  The party started at 10:30 a.m., as everyone arrived, they wrote down their guesses for the chocolate kisses.  Then brunch was served. 

FOOD:  I made two large trays of Breakfast Strata, one with mushrooms and one without; Apricot Danish Puffs; Cinnamon Rolls (from cans); and two loaves of Zucchini Bread, one with walnuts and one without.  In front of each dish I placed a little tent card that I wrote the name of the food on with a fuchsia pen.  In the corner of each one I punched the shape of a birthday cake with a single candle in it.  We had milk, orange juice, grape juice, apple juice, coffee and a pitcher of Mimosas to drink.  I had cups that matched the party ware for the kids.  After everyone had eaten their fill, I gathered the kids together and we played a princess version of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey.  They had to stick a numbered tiara on the princess poster while blindfolded (we didn't blindfold the kids under two).  One kit came with everything needed for 8 players. 

After this I put out a craft activity for the kids (and the adults who joined in!).  I had purchased foam crowns and wands for the kids to decorate.  I placed bottles of glue, the crowns and wands, multi-colored glitter glue pens, a huge assortment of plastic gems in all different sizes, shapes and colors and all different colored pom-poms on the table for them to be creative with.  After this we had Gabrielle open her gifts.  She didn't quite understand what she was supposed to be doing , so it took a little longer than I expected.  Afterwards I announced a last call for writing down the guesses for the chocolate kisses.  I then announced everyones guesses.  My 18 year-old nephew was only off by one!  After this I gave each of the kids a goody bag that matched the invitation to use for the pinata.  I had already placed a candy bracelet with a heart charm in each bag.  The pinata was a pink, silver and white tiara.  It had a silver shape in the center that I added a pink number 1 and little heart and round shaped plastic gems to.  I had bought candy on clearance after Halloween, so it was stuffed (which was why I couldn't fit the candy bracelets in it!).  We had used it as a decoration by the beverages until it was time for the activity and then hung it in the game room.  Next was cake. 

CAKE:  I made two cakes, one for Gabrielle and one for everyone else.  Gabrielle's cake was a 3 inch heart shaped cake (we have had the little mini-pans my whole life - but this was the first time I had thought to use them since I was a little girl).  I frosted it with pink frosting and placed a pink and white striped candle on it.  The main cake was also heart shaped.  I frosted it with pink icing and placed a silver tiara with fuchsia heart-shaped gems in the center (minus the headband part) - it matched the cake plates perfectly! - and decorated it with fuchsia and purple candy letters that spelled out - Happy 1st Birthday Gabrielle.  It was displayed on a footed crystal cake plate.  This was served on the 1st Birthday Princess cake plates.  We also had vanilla and chocolate ice cream and homemade heart-shaped sugar cookies with pink frosting.  Gabrielle wore a pink Happy 1st Birthday bib.  She totally destroyed her personal cake and covered herself in pink frosting!!  So many cute pictures were taken of her and I am hoping to use one for the front of her thank you cards that we are planning to make on our computer.