a buzzing good time!

Our Lillybug turned one and we had a fun time celebrating her first year! If you know me at all you know I love being crafty, creative, and attention to detail. So when it came to planning this shin-dig for the most special little bug once I got started only the actual deadline of the party could stop me. Some might say I went overboard... but I love doing this kind of stuff and what can I say... it runs in my genes. :)

For our Lillybug's first birthday I chose a "cutesy" bug theme... since she is a girl and we didn't want it to be too scary. :) My favorite nickname for her is Lillybug, so I found the bug theme quite fitting. Since I was focusing on more girly bugs I used ladybugs, bumble bees, and butterflies. 

To set the stage I worked with a friend to design these cute invites! I love the sewn on grass and twist on your typical color scheme. The bugs in a little variation of their typical colors made them more modern, refreshing, and fun! I fingerprinted the ladybugs on the envelopes for a personal touch and of course bought garden stamps to match the scene of this party... Lilly's Garden. All in all the invites turned out perfect! I definitely had a concept in mind and MF Creative Designs made it a reality!

As said before... throwing parties runs in my genes. So of course I recruited the lovely lady that passed this trait along to me... miss lulu, and my dear sis Mel. They helped me with a lot of the manual labor... specifically in the kitchen. For some reason I decided to take on all the baking/cooking myself. I did it all... with the help of lulu and tia (jpop and jere even helped me assemble the berry hungry caterpillars)! I'm oh so thankful for everyone's help and willing, happy spirits. It turned out perfect and exactly how I wanted it, but I will say it was a lot of work! 

I had everyone enter the party by coming down the driveway and then to the back yard. Before entering "Lilly's Garden" guests were greeted by Lilly's smash cake and the grub table.

Lilly's ladybug smash cake

funfetti cake with homemade strawberry icing

I iced it once and it was so red that it dyed even my stainless steel mixing bowl. I was so afraid that Lilly would be stained red that i scraped all of the icing off, made new icing not nearly as red, and re-iced it. It tasted better and kept Lilly from turning into a red ladybug herself.

The grub table

homemade strawberry cupcakes with strawberry icing, chili cheese log with crackers, and bug antennas for guests to wear

black bean salsa and fritos

berry hungry caterpillars

hummus and veggies

bumble bee cake pops

These little bugs were buggers. they turned out oh so cute... but boy were they tedious! First, we made the cake balls out of vanilla icing and funfetti cake. then the assembly began with the dipping, sticking, creating bee wings, eyes, and stripes, and then attaching it all to create the cute bumble bees. A big thank you goes out to lulu and tia for their help on these cuties!

Entrance into lilly's garden

i loved the ginormous size of these tissue paper flowers. i varied the color combos to coordinate with the party colors. i thought they turned out super cute! they gave off a definite larger than life feel making all the kids (and adults) feel bug sized! 

i took some pics of lillybug for the mantle and created a happy birthday bunting as the focal point!

I covered this low table in craft paper and bought jumbo crayons for the kiddos to add some color and love for lilly. It was a neat memento that is now in her keepsake box as a memory from her special day. The big bowl of cereal in the middle had a bug net for the kids to scoop out and eat the cereal as they played and colored.

lanterns with flowers and garland decorated the tree

lilly's bug box

more handmade tissue paper flowers

blanket and toys for the little ones

i used the cook center countertop to serve the drinks and a few snacks

on the posts i created a timeline of month by month pictures to watch how lilly grew over the year!

yummy tea punch

take n toss sippees and snack mix

puffs for the toddlers, bottled water with custom labels, and crystal light for guests to "color their water" pink or orange

izzes and individual canned champagnes with straws

Enough with the party decor... and onto the fun stuff. The b-day girl and her friends were ready to party!

Let's see who all flew over to join the fun!

Drew and Lilly eating cereal and coloring

Ellis and Lilly playing in the bug box

Campbell and Ellis

Drew, Lilly, Evie, Anna, Barrett, and Will

Jake joined the fun!

Evie just learning to sit up

My cousins, Paige and Nancy, and my Aunt Jenn came from Denton and Houston to celebrate!

Lillybug with her antennas

Will and Barrett sporting their antennas too!

Sweet Hayley

Jake not sure what was on his head...

Marlene, Lulu, Lilly, Sarah, Allison, Bonny-Kate, and Tia Mel

Lilly, Aunt Jenn, and Tia

Jpop enjoying a cold one while watching all the little bugs crawl around!

Memaw and Papaw came in from Georgetown for the party!

Grandpa Bruce, Karson, Aunt Binky, Aunt SB, Lulu and Allison

Daniel loved my strawberry cupcakes! Made me consider briefly going into the cupcake business... :)

KK and Anna Kate

B-day girl exploring the bug house and lady bugs

Will loved the toys and had the best time. 

Barrett and Lilly chowing down

And then there was CAKE! This little one hadn't had any real sugar until her smash cake. Surprisingly she wasn't the biggest fan.. I stripped her down to save her cute dress from the red icing. She dabbled in it, ate a little bit, got her hands dirty, and then wanted to get down and keep playing!

L and Mommy

L with her party hat made with love by mommy

The gift table and party favors

The favors were a bug bungalow with butterfly bubbles, ladybug bean bag, bug tattoo, and bug net.

Thanks everyone for celebrating Lillybug's BEE-day! You made her birthday so very special!