We did it, you guys! We made it through the first year with twins! When we were expecting twins, those with experience told us frequently, “If you can make it through the first year, you can make it through anything.” It was certainly a roller coaster, a few lows and a lot of highs. It’s all about finding your new normal and realizing just how badass you are at multitasking. Especially when you have two older kids on top of it. If you are new to the world of multiples or are just curious, I recently wrote a post about tips and tricks on getting through that first year. Read it here!
Now that I made it to the one year mark of my littles, it was time to plan a party! I have boy/girl twins so it can be a little difficult to come up with a theme. It took some time but I eventually decided on a tutu and bow-tie theme. First up, the invite! Want it customized for your little ones? You can purchase it in my etsy shop here!
Now on to the party! I decided to DIY a lot of the party, which are three letters my husband usually doesn’t like to hear. Mainly because it makes for more work for me which tends to stress me out more. What can I say? Parties make me crazy and super excited all at the same time. I’d like to think he really does like it. Maybe.
Anyway, time for some decorations. I decided to do my own version of a first birthday photo shoot before the party to use as decorations. I found a cheap photo background on Amazon, set it up in their room, put them in their party outfits and had about 5 minutes of photos before they melted down. Fortunately I got some good ones in that time. Then I printed them off and printed the letters of their names on my home printer, cut them out and made a masterpiece on a foam board! The other board was each of their monthly photos I had taken of them throughout their first year, printed off and positioned to make a “1”. Both boards ended up being super inexpensive and everyone at the party loved looking through all of the photos. Success!
Next up is the beverage table. I printed off an 8×10 of each of the babies from the photo shoot and framed them. I made a simple pink punch with Sierra Mist, Pink Lemonade, and raspberry sherbet. I put that in a punch bowl that was decorated with a tutu that I made with extra tulle and ribbon I had in my craft supplies. I also printed off some black bow-ties on sticker paper and put one on each of the paper cups. Finally I used the invite to design some water bottle labels. Those I also just printed off at home and taped them on using clear packing tape. Easy peasy and super cute!
Now for some food! I ended up having the party mid afternoon so I didn’t need to feed everyone a full meal. Hooray! I ended up having small sandwiches with some party themed food.
I saw this salad done a few different ways when I was researching for the party, I took that and made my own version of a bow-tie pasta Caesar salad. It was SO GOOD and on theme! Perfect!
Next up I made some marshmallow tutus. I really did this for the cute factor, not for the taste but it turns out they became a favorite treat for many of the party goers! Bonus!
A couple more bow-tie food items included veggie cups. I had these little clear cups in my pantry so I printed off more bow-ties on sticker paper and put some dip and veggies in them. Simple and cute! Then I also did some bow tie brownies. Just a batch of brownies and cutout with a bow-tie cookie cutter. Though wait, I should give credit where credit is due, this was my husbands project for the party. He was very proud of his contribution and since it’s not too often that I relinquish any control, I was grateful to have his help!
Who wants cake?! For the cake portion of the party I kept it simple. After all, it was meant to be smashed anyway, right? So for the decorations I made some super cute high chair banners. Again, I just used the same colors and fonts as the invitation and printed them off on my home computer and used white ribbon to string them together. Then some color coordinated streamers and fun balloons to tie it all together! As for the cakes, I just made a simple vanilla cake in a 6″ round cake pan and added color coordinated sprinkles to each. Then I frosted the tops with vanilla frosting, using food color gel to get the colors I wanted. I used a rose frosting tip and just made circles all over until I could no longer see cake. They were ALMOST too pretty to get smashed.
Here’s the finished tablescape! It all turned out super cute and everyone loved it!
The best part of any 1st birthday party is the cake smash. These two took all of about 10 seconds to realize how delicious their cakes were and devoured them. I think it’s safe to say they enjoyed their 1st birthday. Another successful party is in the books!
Don’t forget to have a little fun today!
BubbaLu Creations 