1st Birthday Party!

Ok so Chickie really lit a fire under my butt to get this post done!  I had so much fun planning Ellie's birthday party so I wanted to make sure to share the pictures!  I am posting so many so I hope you can see all of them!

So I think I mentioned previously that Ellie's 1st birthday party was Teddy Bear Picnic themed.  I got a lot of ideas from Pinterest!  I was able to borrow decorations or do things inexpensively.  The cake was really my only "big ticket" item.  

We only had family over for the party since our house is a bit tight for an inside party, so we had about 25 people total including kids. 

My mom has collected teddy bears over the years and decorates her house with them at Christmas time, so I borrowed about 15 bears from her and put them all over the house:

 I had the picture I took of Ellie for the invitation and blew it up to a poster size from snapfish and then mounted it on a canvas - cost about $12 total and now we can hang the picture up somewhere in the house

 This was more for the parents...but this bear got into the scotch ;)

 I bought helium balloons and tied them to bears on the front porch to greet guests!

 I printed my favorite pictures of Ellie from each month and hung them on the staircase

 Here is the chalkboard that I used for all my bump updates!

 

 Ellie's high chair with balloons

 This took forever to do but it was cheap and it turned out really good in the end!  Just streamers and balloons tied to the ceiling!

 The family and some bear friends under the decorations!

I bought as many bear shaped foods as I could (gummy bears, teddy grahams, etc) and put them out in bowls

 Ah the cake!  I love how the cake came out!  It wasn't a huge cake but I think it is so fun!  Look at that bear family having a picnic!

 Ellie's smash cake

 

Another view of the cake, I also made little snickers bar cars that were driven by teddy grahams!

 Ellie wasn't quite sure what to make of the cake!

 And she may have cried a little....

Then we opened some gifts!

 Such a cute hat...too bad it didn't last long on her head!

 

This is my favorite picture from the party, Ellie and her cousins!

Ellie had a fun day and I had fun planning the party!  Who knows what next year's theme will be!