Vintage Circus 1st Birthday Party

Can you believe my baby girl is 1 year old already?




These parties get harder and harder with 2 kids and working full time, but we pulled it off!  I could have done so much more, but I just had to draw the line somewhere for my own sanity.  The decorations came out super cute, the food was good, and everyone had a great time!

DIY party hats with a special one for the birthday girl

Let's just go right to her wearing it because it's too darn cute...she was so upset that she had to wait for cake!

The front hallway with her 12 month calendar photos, party blowers, and circus animal crackers as the balloon weights

Close-up of the party blowers


Front door sign

Back door leading to the backyard...
A couple hours before the party started, we ended up moving a lot of things outside because the weather was beautiful!


Happy Birthday banner in the kitchen

Party hats for the kids

Banner of monthly photos with her baby doll

Cards for the guests to write memories and advice for Caylee.  Everyone wrote the cutest messages for her! (I did this for Connor too, and I love that we can save them for him to look at when he gets older)


The snacks were also an important part of the vintage circus theme.  Everyone pigged out on circus peanuts, gummy bears, candy buttons, popcorn...

Cotton candy, Cracker Jack, animal crackers, etc...

We also had soft pretzels with cheese dip, hot dogs & turkey dogs, and some everyday food too.  Most of it got eaten before I got to take photos!

Caylee absolutely loved her first taste of cake and ended up with half in her tummy & half in her hair!

Connor was a great big brother and helped her blow out her birthday candle!

 It's so hard to believe it's been a year since she was born.  She's gone from a little newborn to a big girl in such a short time! But thank goodness this party is over now...I'm ready to enjoy the summer!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Shortbread Bars

Here come the pumpkin recipes!  I'm not such a big fan of fall, but I do love me some pumpkin!  I made these for a party recently and may or may not have consumed all the leftovers myself very quickly!  So amazing!

Adapted from All Recipes
Ingredients:
• 1 package pound cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 2 T butter
• 4 t pumpkin pie spice (will be separated in half for 2 different parts)
• 8 oz. cream cheese (softened)
• 14 oz. can of condensed milk
• 15 oz. can of pumpkin puree
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat the oven to 350.  In a large bowl, mix the cake mix, 1 egg, butter, and 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice.  The mixture will be crumbly and that's perfect.  Press onto the bottom of a 9x13 pan coated with non-stick cooking spray.

2. In another large bowl, combine the softened cream cheese, condensed milk, 2 eggs, pumpkin puree, the rest of the pumpkin pie spice, and salt.  The original recipe suggests using a mixer, but it worked just fine to use my husband instead!

3. Pour liquid mixture over the crust.  Sprinkle pecans on the top.

4. Bake for 35 minutes or until set.  Store in the refrigerator and serve chilled.

Sesame Street Birthday Party DIY

My little guy just turned 2!  (They grow up way too fast!)  I wanted to share some of the cute decorations and designs I made for his Sesame Street party.

I designed invitations and backed them on colored cardstock.  I also printed matching address labels for the envelopes.  (My trick to save money is to buy a package of colored card stock and cut them to size rather than buying individual sheets from a craft store.  I save a lot of money and then I have leftover cardstock to use for other projects.)

Party hat with a yarn pom-pom

Noise makers - not just for the kids!

I took off the fabric garden flag we had up and replaced it with a sign backed on cardboard.  Of course, this wouldn't work in bad weather, but it was a perfect day out.

Front door sign

Right inside the front door, I set up a little table with balloons, Sesame Street characters, goody bags, and noise makers.  On the wall, I hung up photos from the year with the month written on each one so guests could see how he's grown during the past year.

Happy Birthday banner and colored streamers in the kitchen

Chocolate-covered pretzels are always a hit at every party we have!

Cookie Monster and Elmo fruit platters

Rubber duckies swimming in blue jello

We decided on a hot dog buffet for dinner because it's one of Connor's favorite foods.

I put all the utensils in the Elmo basket and hung balloons from the handle.

The one thing I didn't make was the cake, but the bakery did a great job on it.  Connor was so excited when he saw a giant Elmo on his cake!

It tasted good too!

We had a great time and Connor was such a big boy!