Sidney's First Birthday

I started searching for a "theme" for Sidney's birthday a few months back. (I use the word "theme" pretty loosely). I decided on a rainbow theme. (Rainbow as in rainbow colors, not literally having rainbows everywhere.)

After deciding on the theme, I was on the hunt for the perfect outfit. And where else do you look but Etsy. I found the perfect outfit and ordered it well in advance, or so I thought. I ordered it nearly two months before her birthday but it came in the day BEFORE! I won't go into details but it was my first bad experience with an Etsy shop. I had trouble getting in touch with the seller and the outfit was not the quality I expected. (I ordered the outfit from LouAnns Bitty Bootique. She says she's closing that shop but it appears she's opening a "new" shop under Sisters by Design1...just FYI.)

I ordered the invitaions from Monkey Doodle Parties. (She was very helpful and had a super quick turnaround!) I found inspiration for Sidney's smash cake on this blog (it also gave me the idea for the sign-in book--everyone signed the book and wrote what they thought Sidney might be when she grows up). I decided to do cupcakes for guests. Once again I turned to Etsy for super cute cupcake liners from The Bakers Confections. I found the idea for the cupcake towers at Annie's Eats. I found the cake stand (which is stacked on top of two upside-down bowls) at Marshall's and I already had the large white rectangular platter. I borrowed all the other white dishes from my friend Courtney. Our snacks included: rainbow-colored fruit (strawberries, oranges, pineapple, green grapes, kiwi, blueberries, blackberries, and purple grapes), chips with Pioneer Woman's salsa and rotel, and lemonade. I found plates and napkins at Target.

 

And now for the fun.....we tried to get a few pictures before the party but were not too successful. (I failed to mention earlier that her outfit was supposed to include the appliqued/ruffled onesie, tutu, hat, AND bow. Well, the bow, which was super cute and obnoxious all at the same time, was not included when I got the package. So, luckily, I had a feathery clip that we made work for the day.)

Sidney welcomed everyone before we got started on the snacks.

Then we moved along to her gifts. She did her best to help her daddy open them up.

We got a quick family photo before trying her cake. Sidney did not want to get in her high chair. She did not want me to put on her hat. And she did not want to dig into her cake. After trying to get her to try the cake, we decided to take her out of her chair. I put the top two layers of the cake on a separate plate to try. She slowly dug in and enjoyed it for a few minutes before getting mad again.

After she enjoyed her cake, we threw her in the tub for a quick bath. After we got her out of the tub (and before we got her dressed), she decided to have a little fun on our bed.

We had a wonderful day celebrating Sidney's birthday with our families. We're so thankful so many of them live close by and that we get to see them as often as we do.

 

And here are a few pictures before church that morning.