My baby girl turned one, and we decided to celebrate with a "bloom & grow" themed birthday party for our little sweetheart! apologies in advance for the massive amount of pics!
My original intention was to keep things really small scale since I went a little overboard on my daughter Jia's first birthday that she found kind of overwhelming.
I simplified by just ordering some jet's pizza (our favorite) and only inviting a few close people, though I did still enjoy the decorating.  I justified making a couple dozen enormous flowers by deciding to decorate the girl's room with them after the party. I also decorated the cakes for the party by myself this time and I was pretty proud of my first attempt!

this is the last post about jia's 2nd bday...i promise...but i couldn't leave out the party!

compared to last year, we had a really simple party for jia this year. it was pretty much just a family party this time around.



i loved jia's party last year...we kind of did the whole big first birthday thing and invited all her little friends, but even though it was adorable and cathartic for me, i don't necessarily think it was her idea of a good time. it may have been a little too overwhelming. there were several tearful moments.

so this time we just celebrated with relatives and people she is really familiar with and she had an absolute blast, and it was way less work for me too!

the theme was just a simple backyard birthday. i wanted to take full advantage of having our new patio!



shomik made her a little picnic table for her bday, and we set up her kiddie pool and the kids had the sand box and water table and bubbles to play in as well and the kids were all set.





the girls raided the gift buckets.





once it started to get a little darker we put in Frozen for the babies on the outdoor screen. it was jia's first time to really get into a movie...she was totally focused!



for food we just cooked out. to go along with the backyard summer time theme we also had s'more cupcakes, root beer floats, and watermelon!





we served all the food out of our kitchen window! it opens up onto a small bar in the backyard, so we kept the things that we wanted to keep away from flies on the inside so people could just slide open the window for those. i can't believe we'd never used that feature before...it was great!

jia has fully embraced being two, and even blew out her candles all in one try! such a big girl! she needs to stop growing up so fast. love her!

a couple months ago one of my very best friends was diagnosed with breast cancer. she is a friend who is more like a sister, so my heart has been with her on this awful journey. i truly wish i could take her pain...but i can't, so i threw her a party.



a green gables tea party/hair party/birthday party.




with chemo and her birthday around the corner it was time to prepare. if you look online for hair cutting chemo parties, you pretty much just find ladies drinking a lot of wine together and then shaving their heads. not exactly what i was going for. :P

my friend has gorgeous red hair and is a lover of all things avonlea, so it just made sense to throw a green gables tea party...with plenty of help from some more amazing friends!





after all, anne shirley had to lose her hair for a far less romantic reason, so this is a party she would definitely approve of!

we invited a hair stylist to cut pixies for whoever wanted to shed hair in support, and a make up artist to help my friend adjust to her new look. all this happened while we watched anne of green gables and drank tea, raspberry cordial, and ate goodies!






we wrapped things up with a birthday celebration, and giving gifts of super cute hats, head coverings, and chemo gear to make sure my friend was all prepared for the days ahead! and doesn't she look adorable in that pixie?!



but most of all i hope we helped prepare her by showering her with love! i don't think i've ever been to a party that was so filled with love and support! i guess breast cancer can bring out "bosom" friends, and definitely kindred spirits!

i was initially conflicted about whether or not to even have a first birthday party for my daughter. i mean, of course we would have celebrated, but i didn't know if a party was something she would even be able to enjoy at such a young age.

but then as her first birthday got closer, i started getting bummed about how quickly my baby girl was growing up, and that's when i decided a party was definitely in order! if nothing else, i needed i diversion!


i decided to go for a hot air balloon themed party. the reasoning was that while i was in labor with jia and just about to start pushing, there was a hot air balloon floating outside my hospital window! despite everything that was going on for me in that moment, that made a special impact, and to me is a cool memory of her birth!

so i started putting together a party for jia and her batch of baby friends from church, and drew on some ideas from pinterest. if you look up anything about baby parties on pinterest, expect to be bombarded, and for things to quickly spiral out of control! it's like i couldn't help myself...pinterest projects turned into my therapy. although i must say, not all the ideas were stolen from pinterest...i did have a couple original ones in the mix!

i made a hot air balloon fruit basket, with rainbow fruit skewers, and photo "clouds." basically i used the walgreens app to print the instagram pics i've been taking like crazy for the past year, and i taped them to the end of balloons. it was a sweet little photo gallery.



the picnic part didn't quite turn out like my vision though. we were supposed to have a couple balloons on each picnic blanket, tied to lanterns with little citronella candles in them to keep the mosquitos away...but alas, the wind blew us all away. we had to resort to weighing the blankets down with random stuff...but at least the wind also kept the mosquitos at bay...and you can't complain about a breeze when it's 100 degrees! and i totally recommend a picnic for little ones...it makes the clean up so much easier!


we did cupcakes for everyone instead of regular cake...and since a lot of the guests were under 1 year old, i actually made healthy(ish) chocolate zucchini cupcakes so we wouldn't feel as bad about the kiddos chowing down! and contrary to how it sounds, they are delicious! for party favors i had goodies in some little bags with a pinwheel and balloon on top...it kind of looks like little hot air balloons, right? maybe?


jia's smash cake was really just 5 and 1/2 cupcakes put together into the shape of a cloud, and iced over! on top i put an actual pic of the hot air balloon that we took while in labor. it's kind of like it's floating on a cloud, right? as with all smash cakes...cuteness in sued.



one of my favorite party pinspirations was a little hot air balloon photo area. i mean, does it get any cuter?

please! the cuteness!!

but of course the babies would have been just as happy if the whole party had only consisted of the little splash pool. (water is a necessity at all texas summer parties!)

at the end of the day, we all had fun i think. jia was too wiped out at the end to really appreciate gift opening, but the next morning was pretty much like christmas for her!



so even though the fullness of it all was a bit lost on jia, it was still fun to celebrate our little girl, and reminisce a year that all too quickly flew by! and i gotta say...kid parties are fun!

**a big thanks to Akshay Harshe Prasad Photography for the pics!**