Polka Dot Party

I think planning a birthday party is fun. I've been collecting polka dot fabric, ribbon, and party favors as I've seen them in the stores. It was a fun challenge to pull it all together this Saturday for Mia's 1st birthday and I love the way it all came together. It wasn't super fancy, but it was cute and fun and just about everything was polka dotty!

There were lavendar polka dot table cloths, round orange lanterns, and round "polka dot" pictures hanging for the tent outside.

I was looking at Pottery Barn kids magazine one day and they were selling a birthday banner for $45 similar to this one that I made out of felt and fabric for less than $10!

Our little birthday girl was a little shocked to see so many people at our house when she woke up from her morning nap, but she got right into party mode after some lunch and a swim.She really enjoyed opening presents with Momma and reading the birthday cards. She likes to turn the "pages". Mia's favorite gift was this Radio Flyer ride on rocket from Grandma Jeri and Grandpa Jim. Uncle Paul spent the rest of the party pushing Mia around on the rocket and teaching her how to push on her own. Mia is definitely our child. She's not big on getting dirty, so we weren't surprised when she didn't dive right in. After a close call with the flame, she took off all the marzipan polka dots and broke off a small corner of the cake to feed to Momma. Because of the flame incident, my family stopped singing after the first verse of Happy Birthday. In our family we sing three verses, but Mia only got one on this day. Here's a picture of the cake everyone else ate. Aunt Heather did a great job!

Mia let us know she was partied out by popping her "thumby" in her mouth. She lasted quite a while past her normal naptime, but did very well! Sunday, on her actual birthday, we did a little "redo" of the cake smashing with better results. Mia is still not the type to rub cake in her hair though. We also sang all three verses of the birthday song and she LOVED it! She smiled and swung her feet while we sang. She was enjoying it so much that we sang it twice more, all three verses! Here's a picture of the second cake smashing opportunity on Sunday afternoon.