The Kirbys: Strawberry Birthday Party

We threw a Strawberry Shortcake 1st birthday party for our sweet little red head. I personally don't care for character parties, so I knew I wanted to do a little something different but definitely have it all about strawberries. I found some really cute printables online, printed and cut them all out and then forgot to use them... I also made some super cute pink red and green ruffled streamers and never put them up because I ran out of time... but regardless, I think the party still turned out cute and everyone, especially the birthday girl, had a great time.

We started with decorating little pots that all of the little munchkins later planted seeds in. (Did you know that like nobody sells strawberry seeds. Everywhere I went, they looked at me like, seriously? why don't you just buy a plant? So they planted little white flower seeds instead.) You can tell how excited Emmie was to decorate, ha!

She really did do a good job though and really got into it. It was pretty funny. She was very protective of her little pot. Notice the concentration?

Then we played a bean bag toss game. Well, I'm not sure you could really call it a game, we really just had all of the kids line up behind "the line" and told them to throw. There was no order, it was pretty much a free for all, but if you made it into one of the baskets you got to pick a prize. The kids loved it. Emily sat this game out; I'm not so sure how 1yr-old-friendly it was... (Is that the appropriate use of a semi-colon? I never know when to use those things.)

Hanging out, looking bored while all of the bigger kids were playing games. But look how cute she is with her pursed lips and her crossed feet. Ooh, I'm her biggest fan for sure!

We had homemade strawberry cupcakes and chocolate ones too, topped with a strawberry Swiss meringue frosting. I made cute little strawberries out of marshmallow fondant and used those as cupcake toppers and then wrapped Emily smash cake in it too. I thought they all turned out pretty cute.

I made these little ruffled ribbon topiaries just for the party too. Mike said I was just being silly when I made these, but now they are up in Em's room and they look really adorable. I just adore anything with ruffles!

By the time her birthday party came around, Emily had already smashed/eaten a cake for her one year pictures and eaten cake on her actual birthday, so she really wasn't too excited about another cake... but she really liked the fondant strawberry on top and smeared that all over herself. She did end up finally taking a few bites and left just enough of a mess for a cute picture.

Then, she got a little carried away with the cake mess and ended up rubbing it all over her face, in her hair, and eyes... we had a minor melt down over that one. She loves playing in the sink though, so that brought her spirits right back up again.

After a quick little outfit change (it's a good thing I had multiple wardrobe options for the party), and a quick, fake cheese from her big sister (is there a stage that kids go through when they wont look at the camera anymore no matter how much you beg and bribe them? If so, Kylie's there), Emily opened some gifts from her friends.