A little of this and that: Allie's Birthday Party!

We had Allie's First Birthday Party this past Saturday (July 18). We had it at a Chinese restaurant, I know it's not very ideal, we actually went back and forth between having her party at a hall, the house or the restaurant, in the end it was just more practical to have the party in a place where we didn't have to cook (of course I still had to bake, that was a given) and CLEAN. So, restaurant it is.

We had a ton of guests,mostly Richard's parent's "family friends", Richard's family (of course), and our friends. I only wish my side of the family were able to come also.

The banner was simple and cute. I just printed each letter on cardstock, punched holes and used brads and ribbons to connect the letters. Easy peasy.

I made a TON of desserts (not including the cake). There was the brazo, sansrival, blueberry banana desserts and tiramisu. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take a picture of these desserts. And of course the CAKE! Don't want to toot my own horn but it was awesome! not the most complicated cake I ever made but it turned out so good. I was very happy with it. Andrew actually helped me make the decorations by rolling some of the balls that surrounded each tier.

For favors, I filled up gerber glass jars with green and pink m&m's and jelly beans.

Lots of kids that Andrew played with. We played one game (it was after all a restaurant so I couldn't just have a "pin the tail on the donkey" kind of game), the Pinata. It was a pull-the-string pinata so it wasn't dangerous and overly messy. Each kid picked a ribbon to pull and they all pulled it at the same time. It was fast and the kids had their share of candies. No fuss no muss.

Okay, so this was me and my dear daugther BEFORE the party. It was so hot, humid and crazy yesterday.... my make-up didn't make it for the party... oh, well. (but my cowlick sure did!)