Miss Kennedy's First Birthday Party!

Now that I've had some time to go through the pictures and edit them, I am so excited to share some photos from Miss Kennedy's first birthday party! Are you so excited to see?!

 Her actual birthday is on December 17 (so be prepared for more birthday gushiness and photos then), but we ended up having her birthday party on the 8th in order to work around other parties and the holiday season.

Let me just say before I dump all these photos on you - we had an amazing time and we are so thankful for such amazing friends and family who came from all over (my inlaws and Greg's grandmother drove 4 hours just to be there for the afternoon!) to celebrate with Kennedy! We love you all!

So, let's talk about all the decorations. I ordered a few things online (the balloons, favor bags, instagram prints and popcorn boxes) but a lot I made myself (the Minnie heads, the banners and the instagram garland). I think it had a personal touch without it feeling overly decorated and "OMGMINNIEMOUSE." I took my inspiration

This is our dining room and what you saw right when you walked in We kept the food and cake in there and the drinks in the kitchen. Thank goodness this color scheme worked well with our Christmas decorations! 

Aren't the way the plates laid out just awesome? Ha! Instead of confetti, I used some of the mini instagram prints of Kennedy. We'll talk more about that in a second. And I made the banner in Photoshop. I sorta copied something I found online because I knew I could make it myself! I printed it on cardstock, punched holes in it, and strung it up using red and white striped baker's twine.

Here are some of the details I did. I made all those Minnie heads by printing them out onto regular white cardstock. I then cut them out, but they didn't look that great because there were some white edges. So I colored over them using a big black sharpie, and I colored the back of them as well. I then hot glued ribbons on. I put some of the Minnie heads on skewers via hot glue and then some went on my garland. I ordered those paper straws and favor bags online. I got the stickers at Party City and drew the labels myself. The favors were snickerdoodle cookies!

Probably my favorite and our guests' favorite detail was the homemade "Instagram Garland." I used this website, Prinstagram to get 2 inch square prints of all the pictures I've uploaded of Kennedy since her birth. There were tons, and you know that if you follow me on Instagram. I strung up the baker's twine all over the house, securing the ends with little clear 3M hooks and hung up all the pictures and some of the Minnie heads using mini clothespins (found at Hobby Lobby). I had tons left over, so I used them as confetti, as previously mentioned. I plan on making a scrapbook with all of the prints and decorations almost as a 1 year baby book, so that these decorations have multiple uses!

Can we talk about how amazing these cakes turned out (particularly the big one)! Some even joked it was elaborate as their own wedding cakes! It was pretty awesome. Jenny's Bakery did an amazing job of bringing some pinterest inspiration to life! We ordered a cake for 30 but the bottom layer ended up being enough for everyone! So we are saving the top layer for her actual birthday on Monday. And how precious is that smash cake?! Let's see how Kennedy enjoyed it...

(Aren't you impressed I learned how to make an animated .gif?)

Unfortunately, I don't have many other pictures of the "goings on" during the birthday party. I was running around non stop! I'm sure all of the guests took pictures for me. One thing I wish I had was a photographer (or someone designated to take pictures), that's for sure. We did get some amazing portraits afterward outside (thank you to my sister!) for our Christmas card (you'll see that soon). 

One thing I do have is my Kennedy kissing another Kennedy (among a crazy mess of presents).

Okay, maybe it was more like wanting to bite faces.

All in all... it was a great time!