Real Party: Little Pumpkin's 1st Birthday!

In an ideal world, I would have brought you this post back in October when all my readers were in pumpkin-mode. No one cares about pumpkins right now, right? But I'm hoping that we always care about cute parties!
My life (and crazy 1 year old) just aren't allowing me to blog in a timely manner at the moment. I have several cool things to share and I will get them up as soon as humanly possibly, they may just be a little out of season. Ok?

So...pretend its still October and take a look at this adorable Little Pumpkin party!

My daughter's bff had her 1st birthday party. That is my best friend's daughter (We have decided they are bff's obviously). Lindsay threw an amazing party in her backyard to celebrate (of course!). I can't wait to share all the details with you! 

Jennafer of Oh Creative One created the invites.  They were perfect!

The hostess wore her pumpkin, of course. :)

Lindsay rented a few tables and chairs for the backyard.  Her mom made fabric pumpkins to cluster on the tables for centerpieces. Aren't they amazing?!

Lindsay strung a banner of monthly pictures of little Akemi on the fence.  Some of those faces are priceless.

Lindsay set up "Akemi's Pumpkin Patch" in a corner of the yard.  Since most of the guests were 1-year-olds, she decided to forgo a traditional activity. Instead, kiddos were encouraged to wear costumes, and they all posed for photos in the patch. Too cute.

Lunch was a taco bar, catered by one of my favorite spots.

The dessert table!
The desserts were as tasty as they were cute...

The star of the table was the pumpkin smash cake Lindsay made with a mini bunting. Too cute. 

I made some pumpkin cake pops, Lindsay made pumpkin spice cupcakes, Akemi's Grandma made mini pumpkin pies, and Deb made caramel corn. Lindsay also added some sugar cookies.  We made some of these pumpkins and scattered them around the table as well.

 At first Akemi was a little hesitant with her cake.

But she quickly figured out what wonderful things sugar and butter are. :)

Happy Birthday Akemi!

And since you haven't seen her in a while...

...here's my little butterfly posing in the patch. :)

Resources
Party Rentals: Danny Thomas Party Rentals
Invitation: Oh Creative One
Lunch food: Pancho Villa
Akemi's dress: Baby Gap

Real Party: Minnie Mouse 2nd Birthday!

I can't believe its been a year since this adorable birthday party! 

Our sweetest little friend Kyla recently turned two, and her Mom & Dad outdid themselves with her celebration!  Kyla's mom (my friend Joanne) shared all her resources & photos with me, and I'm so happy to pass them on to you!

This year's theme was Minnie Mouse.

Does it get any cuter?  I am dying over her dress and adorable yellow shoes!

Lunch was lots of kiddie favorites: Mickey shaped chicken nuggets (Costco!), Mac & cheese with mickey-shaped noodles, and Pluto's Pizzas. :)

The adorable cake was made by Patty Cakes. Joanne used a Cricut machine to make the banner. And she followed this tutorial to make the cute Minnie Mouse cookies. 

Joanne has several low-key activities for guests to participate in.  There was Disney trivia sprinkled throughout the space.  There was a game of Pin the Bow on Minnie.  Minnie coloring sheets were available. And guests could put on temporary Disney tattoos.  

She also hired a balloon specialist who made Disney characters out of balloons for guests. 

Party favors were sugar cookies (made by Kyla's Grandma) & crayons in the classic mouse shape (made by Joanne). Joanne sealed the bags with mouse ears made on the Cricut. 

Happy Birthday Kyla!

And thank you Joanne for sharing all the fun photos and ideas with us! 

Sources: 

Cake: Patty Cakes

Balloons: A New Twist

Real Party: Japanese Cherry Blossom Baby Shower

This past weekend was my friend Lindsay's baby shower. 

We did a Japanese Cherry Blossom theme in pink and gray.  Her nursery is  going to be pink and gray cherry blossoms, and we added some Japanese touches as a nod to her culture. I was so happy with how everything turned out! I think she was too. 

I used this invitation from Ink Obsession Designs.  The designer, Erin, was fabulous to work with. She reworked the invite for a baby shower and got it to me very quickly when I found myself running out of time. 

A sign welcomed guests to my backyard.  

Konnichiwa means Good Afternoon or Hello in Japanese. 

My friend Drea made several pink party poms and then painted cherry blossoms onto white lanterns.  It made a beautiful display. 

When guests arrived we had appetizers and drinks out. 

Itadakimasu means something close to Let's Eat in Japanese.

Appetizers were potstickers (with little flags inspired by this wedding), spam and vegetable musubi (which Lindsay loves), and Japanese rice crackers (served in doily cones made by Katie). 

All the food labels had both the Japanese and English names for the foods on them. 

I made a sparkling pink lemonade and had several kinds of white and sparkling wine. 

Guests found their seats at one of three tables around the backyard.

I made runners for the tables. 

Drea, Deb, Christina, and I made tissue cherry blossom branches centerpieces. These were based off this tutorial on Hostess with the Mostess.  They were fairly easy, but time consuming.  But it paid off. I loved the low centerpieces on each table.  

 We also used some of the branches to make a tree for guests to hang advice from. 

Katie made napkin rings out of Japanese paper from Paper Source.

We had the favors at each place setting.  We had Pocky sticks, which came in the cutest pink and silver packaging, and sugar cookies with custom cherry blossom toppers. 

The toppers were from Sweet'n Treats, who is a sponsor of this blog. They were adorable.

This picture is so washed out that it doesn't do the topper justice. Check back tomorrow and I'll have more pictures and tell you all about how I used these toppers. 

Lunch was Hawaiian plate lunch foods (Lindsay's favorite!).  We had green salad, sticky rice, mac salad, teriyaki chicken, and kalua pork with cabbage.  It was delicious. The meats were from Takahashi Market. 

After a leisurely lunch, it was time for dessert.

Drea's cherry blossom cake was one of the highlights of the shower. It was just as tasty as it was beautiful.  We also served strawberry mochi ice cream on the side. 

How beautiful is this cake? 

Lindsay will have one well dressed little girl. :) 

Congratulations Linds, can't waaaaaait to meet her!! 

Thanks so much to everyone who helped with the shower! Some I mentioned already, but I'll do it again: Drea, Deb, Leslie, Katie, Christina, Jeani, Megan, and even Janelle (from afar!)

Vendors: 

Linens: Danny Thomas Party Rentals

Catering: Takahashi Market

Cookie Toppers: Sweet'n Treats

Invitations: Ink Obsession Designs

On another note...Look at these preggo friends I have!

I told you there were going to be lots and lots of baby showers coming up! :)

Real Party: Apple Green & Fuschia Wedding Reception -- updated!

**Update: half of this post was erased somehow. (ugh!) Please read again, all the information is now updated and included!**

Last week I finally got around to sharing some pictures of my wedding from several years ago.  

Today I've got the rest of the pictures for you from our reception. 

We had a little table with our guest book and some photos of our parents at their own weddings near the entrance to the reception.

The centerpieces were one of my favorite things about the wedding. 

Apples were a nod to my home state -- Washington -- and I love the color.  We used floral picks to attach apples, and then my florist went through and added some flowers and ribbon flags.  

I was thrilled with how they turned out.  

 Green apples also decorated the buffet table. 

My husband is an avid snowboarder, and I like to ski.  We decided to name our tables after ski resorts that we have been to.  We sat people at tables that were somehow related to them, for example we sat people at resorts near where they live, or that we had vacationed to with them.  Everyone noticed this touch and really enjoyed it.  My Grandma made pink fabric squares to place under the centerpieces to give the tables a pop of color. 

My Grandma also wrapped chocolates for us and we had them sprinkled among all the tables throughout the reception. 

We saved a lot of money on the cake by ordering a plain white layer cake.  The baker just added some of the coordinating ribbon which we pulled off before serving.  

Our florist added some flowers.  

Our party favors were individually wrapped Tom's Cookies, a famous cookie shop in San Francisco (which I think has now closed -- sad!)  My wonderful friend and bridesmaid Janelle baked them all for me in the days before the wedding. 

After dinner there were sweet & funny toasts. 

And then we danced the night away! 

What a fun night!! I wouldn't have changed a thing!

Vendors: 

Photography: Krystal Preciado

Cake: Sweet Dreams Cakery

Venue: Pines Resort

Flowers: Kathy Campisi

Real Party: My Gender Reveal

I have a very exciting announcement! 

My husband and I are expecting our first child! We are beyond thrilled. 

Last week we shared the moment of discovering the sex of our baby with several friends. 

I mentioned recently the Gender Reveal party for my friend Lindsay.  Everyone had such a great time, that we decided to do it again! 

(Plus Lindsay really wanted the fun job of making the cake and being the first to hear the news.)

This time we had a backyard bbq.  Lindsay made us a gorgeous and delicious cake. 

(If you remember, the cake I made for her melted horribly in the car -- hers put mine to shame!) 

 (How beautiful is that cake?  Can you tell I was really excited? sheesh...) 

My husband and I did not a preference on the gender at all.  We said the entire time that we just wanted a healthy baby.  However, we were both convinced from the beginning that it was a boy.  Convinced.  We had a short list of boy's names already. We sometimes referred to the baby as "he".  At our ultrasound, the baby was very active, so I was picturing a high-energy little boy (like my husband was).  Everyone else guessed it was a boy too (except my Grandma, she knew better!)...So that explains our complete shock when I cut into the cake...

...and saw...

PINK FROSTING! 

Oh yes, its definitely a girl! 

Here's a little video. I love our expressions - priceless! 

What a fun, fun way to discover one of the biggest surprises of our lives! 

A little disclaimer: I want to seriously apologize for the slowing down of regular posts on this blog. I was terribly sick for most of my first trimester, and it was just too much for me to keep up my normal posting schedule. Happy to report I'm finally feeling better! And that there are lots of fun baby shower posts in the future here at Oh Baby! Shower Decor...the blog.  Thank you all so much for sticking with me! 

Welcome to the world Riley, Graham, and Evan! Can't wait to meet you all!

Real Party: Gender Reveal

One of my bff's, Lindsay (who I mention all the time on this blog), is expecting her first baby.  (!!)

I talked her into doing a cake for her gender reveal.  Despite the non-ideal weather and some melted frosting, we had an awesome time.  

Lindsay wanted to go Tomales Bay Oyster Company to have her big reveal. So all our friends loaded up the cars with yummy food and made the trip up there.

Tomales Bay Oyster Company has an awesome spot along a cool bay in Northern California which is perfect for oysters.  There's picnic tables and barbeques and you can buy bags of oysters on site and grill them up. It is seriously a cool place to have a little get-together.  

The day before I received a sealed envelope from Lindsay's doctor's office. I was under strict orders to share the contents with no one.  {Torture!} 

I made a cake with a secret-colored frosting center.  And of course it melted on the long car ride. But it still served its purpose and tasted yummy. 

The big reveal...

They were THRILLED! It was such a fun moment! 

 It's a...

...Girl! 

 

Congratulations Tom & Lindsay! I can't wait to meet her!