Garden Tea Party 1st Birthday Party

Our youngest child (we have 5) turned one this month. We waited to have her party until this weekend so her Godparents could come and celebrate this special milestone with her.  Normally it is super hot here already in May, but God gave us the most wonderful weekend, the most beautiful temperate day, for our beautiful, sweet mannered daughter, Brooke.

I love looking at the party blogs and getting ideas. However, I look at them and think "Good Lord, who spends that much money on a 5 yr old's (or however old) birthday party!? There seems to be an awful lot of excess going on. It makes my head hurt.  and I'm sure their pocketbooks. I love a beautifully, well done party, where common sense  (and a reasonable budget) prevail! (cue the trumpets!, cue the husbands sharing a collective sigh of relief!)

I would like to clarify that if I were an amazing DIY'er like some of the women out there  on some of my fave party blogs, where doing more would not cost me more...I would! and my hats go off to them and the amazing parties they put out on budgets similiar to mine, putting mine to shame! But this post is to give you ideas and make you think about how your next party can be a pretty party on a reasonable budget (and pocketbook/environment friendly)! Actually, this post is about showing you one of the little people who make my life amazing, because, well, in my opinion she may be the best and sweetest baby in the world, but I digress...

I wanted to share with you a few pictures for you of our daughter Brooke's first birthday party that we held yesterday. Keep in mind that all the decorations were either handmade by the older kids (who were thrilled to be asked to take part in such an important task) or came from the Dollar Tree (our dollar store) and can all be reused. We fed 14 people and the party was under $200.  The food was enough to feed our family of 7 two more meals.

                                        Brooke's First Birthday Garden Party Tea Party

place: our house and yard

attendees: 7 adults, 7 kids

menu: orange bbq pulled pork sandwiches (for the recipe click here) , chips with homemade pico de gallo and guacamole (for recipes click here) , vegetable platter with homemade California dip and my easy summer cucumbers. And there was cake...lots of cake...too much cake...sick of cake....

The butterflies the older kids made (they are made from folded magazine paper and pipe cleaners...click here for the tutorial...the 4 older kids made a clothes basket full and we hung them everywhere.

they looked so cute hung from the kitchen light like a butterfly chandelier

 As usual, we kept the environment in mind for Brooke's party, buying only decorations that could be reused (the flowers will be used for the Girl Scout Mother Daughter Tea I will host this coming year, among other things) and in keeping with my promise to Mr. Darcy that I would help him make our savings goals for this year, they all came from Dollar Tree. I have to say, Brooke, the guest of honor, had no idea what the budget for her party was and the guests didn't care.

   My mom used to say "people will remember, will only remember,  if you were a welcoming hostess and if the food was good. In the end, the rest is just fluff". Since my boys are special needs and homeschooled, their party invitations are few and far between. By making a bigger effort for the family birthdays, and including them in the making of the decorations,  they don't feel like they are missing out. Brooke's party was a wonderful "marriage" of a small crowd, great food, homemade decorations, and some fun party activities for the kids....like

We had a crafting table set up outside with painting crafts (from the dollar tree) and a spray bottle activity to make colored coffee filter butterflies. The kids painted, literally, for hours...I also found butterfly nets at the Dollar Tree...they were a big hit. The kids ran around the yard catching small butterflies the adults threw. FUN!

The weather was cooperative, with a cool breeze so we did cake picnic style outside. I am so glad we moved Brooke outside for cake. She had it Everywhere!

After a quick (well, not so quick) after-cake bath...we changed into our birthday outfit, opened a few gifts and then took a few more pictures of the birthday girl:

  I encourage all of you to think outside the box and think of ways to make parties special without spending unnecessarily, without undue stress, without undue plastic, and with always being true to your vision of what you want your celebrations to be about. I think my Mom would think I hit the mark with this one. The food was great and everyone who came was welcomed with old fashioned hospitality to a party that had old fashioned common sense. How do you make parties special at your house? Are you a DIY'er when it comes to parties? If so, I would like a shade structure built for our next family birthday. The twins turn 11 in July and it's mighty hot here then...

Blessings,