A Magical First Birthday - Pigtails & Pinot

It just doesn’t seem possible that we are wishing my littlest little a happy first birthday! I mean, she was just born like last month, right?!?! These days, the time just does not let up, and in the blink of an eye my baby is a toddler!

I was extra excited to plan Isla’s first birthday! Extra excited as in, I bought some of the decor/party supplies at Home Goods back in July, 7 months before her actual birthday! In my defense it was on sale, and just too super cute to pass up. So, unicorn theme it was!

In case you missed the girls Halloween costumes, Isla was a unicorn, and the cutest I’ve ever seen if I do say so myself. 😉 So that just confirmed my theme plans even more.

Unlike her big sister’s first birthday party, we decided to keep the party very small and only invited family, about 13 total guests including kiddos. It was different for us, because we love to entertain family and friends, but was also so nice to be able to spend time with everyone and enjoy the time, instead of running around like a crazy person like I do most other parties. We might stick to this theme going forward, but we’ll see.

Decorations were pretty minimal, and several were left over from a baby shower I hosted for a coworker. Nothing wrong with reusing and saving some cashola! Lots of pinks, teals, white, and gold.

You can’t have a first birthday party without the monthly milestone pictures. I love seeing how much they change over that first year, even if ours weren’t technically “monthly” this time around. They were close enough! And the resemblance to her older sister as a baby is just unbelievable to me!

I always order balloons for parties because 1- they are fun for the kids and 2- just scream happy birthday fun times. And, they always seem to linger a week or so after, so the fun just keeps on coming–even in the bathtub!

Peek-a-boo!

The menu was fairly simple. I forgot to snap a photo, but it was a yummy brunch display. Since the hubs and I were still on Whole 30, along with my cousin and his wife, I included some Whole 30 compliant options so we all weren’t left just munching on plain veggies! Because that’s NO fun!

//Eats//

-Mini quiche (Costco)

-Chicken salad sammies on croissant (Costco- their cape cod chicken salad

is SO good and it was SO hard to resist eating one!)

-PB&J and flutter-nutter sammies

-Berry and granola yogurt parfait bar

-Veggie platter

-Melon and prosciutto <whole 30>

-Taco quiche <whole 30>

-Pretzels and kettle corn

//Sips//

Pink Lemonade, Mimosas, Beer, Water

Now on to dessert. I ordered a guest cake and of course a smash cake for my little bambino, along with some cookies for favors.

Everything was wonderful, but we had a wee little situation with the guest cake….and by wee little I mean it was literally collapsing in front of our eyes. Long story short, the top layer of the cake slid forward in the ten minute transit after I picked it up. Aaron and I tried to do a quick fix-a-roo and prayed for the best. Welllll…the next morning the best just didn’t come to fruition, and that’s when it all went downhill….literally.

BUT, despite the disaster that became of this cake, everyone raved and said it was delicious! (Unless they were all just being big liars and trying to make me feel better?!) Either way, I froze a big ol’ sloppy piece for Aaron and I to try for ourselves now that Whole 30 is O-V-E-R (woohoo!) so we’ll see who was telling the truth! 😉 And most importantly the baker felt awful! No explanation other than I must’ve been driving like a bat outta hell after picking it up? (Not me, never! ) She refunded us, for everything, which was more than fair and awesome. And we’ll definitely give her another shot for Josie’s birthday in May.

Truth is, as much as I was hoping for that beautiful unicorn cake that I had been SO EXCITED about, there are much bigger and more important things to get upset about. So I just had to brush that one off and get over it. Bottom line is that our family was together for my girls special day, happy and healthy. Cake disasters will come and go, but it’s creating memories like this that will always be cherished. I love and appreciate everyone who celebrated with us–many who drove an hour or two+ to be there!