The First Birthday Party!

What a great day for a birthday party! We had amazing weather, blue skies and lovely sunshine!  It was great to greet Spring with a gathering of family and friends to celebrate Lily's 1st birthday.  We had a BBQ with burgers, mini hotdogs, salads and sweets for after and of course cake - lots and lots of cake!

Bunting is Paper Eskimo Bunting, I just used the pink and red and red and white coloured flags with photos of Lily's first year in between.  You can get the bunting from Vanilla Cupcake for $12.99. Popcorn bags, Polka dot napkins are from the $2 shop, Polka Dot Cupcake cases are from Countdown.  All props for the table were borrowed from my good friend Jem who has a great collection having had 2 girls and lots of birthday parties!
Other Party decoration ideas I used you can read about them here: Polka Dot Party Decorations

Goodies included Fruit Kebabs, Lolly Cake, Fairy Bread, Marshmellow Pops, Popcorn, Mini Mallowpuffs, Pebbles, Raisins and Tim Tams.  Yum!  It was easy to make stuff and great for effect.

These cute little straws can be bought from any party supply store
these ones are from Charlie Horse Parties

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And the birthday cake which I made myself (I swear I won't make another one every time I do it, but there is a great sense of self satisfaction once it is finished!) -

The Birthday Girl having fun in the Ball Pit

Polka Dot Party decorations

Party Decorations

So the planning continues with Lily's party - next on the list is the decorations.  With the cake being this one, I have decided on Polka Dots!

Online Inspiration

I have decided to go with a pink and white polka dot and red and white polka dot colour scheme.  Sounds a bit crazy I know, but I love polka dots and can make it work with block colours in the red and pink as well.  So after a bit of online research (where else would I get all my great ideas!) I  found the following red and pink themed party over at www.babybites.co.nz - a great place to start for party inspiration, they have loads of different party themes and real parties to spend hours drooling over! I also found many other ideas on Pinterest.

Red and Pink Party

Online Party Supplies

I found these polka dot lanterns and mini table runners over at Sweet Pea Parties.  There are many other bits and pieces - you can get jumbo polka dot balloons and smaller versions aswell, polka dot tables runners, polka dot cupcake stands............. you kinda get the idea!

Pop Roc Parties and Dots n Spots are also great party accessory stores:

I love these goodies from Pop Roc Parties

 and Dots n Spots

Another place to try is the many $2 shops that have popped up everywhere these days, they are a great place to start and you can often find wee gems for next to nothing.  I found red and white and pink and white spotty napkins for $2 a packet and some cute popcorn bags for $2 a packet as well.

If you know where to get any cute Polka Dot party decorations at other places than the ones listed above please comment below, your fellow readers would appreciate it.

You can read about the Birthday Party here : The First Birthday Party