Twinkle Twinkle Little Star: Harper’s First Birthday

I’m a little late on posting this which I’m sure exactly no one is surprised about. I thought I’d sneak this in while she’s still officially 12 months old. We had so much fun hosting our first backyard birthday party! It was so nice to not have to pack up all of the décor and food and drag it to the park or beach. We did get a some rain but our little party goers didn’t seem to mind! I apologize to my FB peeps if you’ve seen these before, hopefully you’ll indulge my party excitement.

In our backyard we have another little structure. We’re not exactly sure what to call it (casita? back house? love shack?). It does have electricity but not HVAC. It is cooled by window units and heated by a wood burning stove and it is also lacking a bathroom so I can’t imagine it being a guest house. It is the perfect little party space though! It definitely has a woodsy flair since it is completely outfitted in wood paneling. Basically, it’s a park shelter. We haven’t filled it with furniture yet so we rented a few tables and chairs, covered them in kraft paper and decked it out in stars for our little lady.

It was fun doing a little sweets table. We had store bought cupcakes from Pavillions with cupcake toppers from Anthropologie. I saved the cupcake picks spelling out her name from her baptism party. I bought them from Etsy but the seller is no longer active. I really love them since they don’t shed glitter on the cake.

I filled the top tier with yogurt stars from Trader Joe’s and the bottom tier with sugar cookies that I whipped out. They were my only culinary contribution to the party. I tend to fill my time with a crazy amount of crafting, seen here. Do your best and hire the rest!

I spray painted this vintage high chair black for the smash cupcake portion of the party. We used it for Hudson’s first birthday too (it was orange then). I cut all of the stars and banners out of glitter scrapbook paper. I threw together the little rag banner at the last minute for some additional color.

We kept the food pretty simple, we just grilled chicken and hot dogs, veggie sticks, fruit and a veggie platter. Like I said, I prefer to spend my time on the crafting and decorating for a party so I tend to outsource the food. If you love to cook, stir it up!

This is the best family picture we got from the whole day. We’ll try harder next year! Ha! Harper loved her cake and brother made sure she tried some cookie, juuust to make sure she got enough sugar coursing through her veins.

On her actual birthday we lit up a candle on her fancy breakfast waffle and made her wear that adorable crown again while serenading her with another chorus of Happy Birthday. She’s obviously thrilled with our efforts.

Happy First Birthday Sissy! We love you more than all the stars!