Shawn and I have thrown lots of parties in the past – but never anything starting before 5:00 pm or one that didn’t need a few signature cocktails. So we had a lot of questions throwing Juliette’s first birthday: what to feed everyone, entertainment, and how to handle 10+ kids crawling all of over our 900 sqft!

We settled on: pesto pasta salad, kale caesar, catered sandwiches, mini cupcakes, and chocolate chip cookies I made from scratch (just kidding! I got frozen dough and threw them in the oven for 2 minutes under the suggested cook time and they always taste homemade – hot tip!), and put out lots of red candy in our blue dishes to give our table a “picnic” look. Juliette’s uncle played some Raffi on the guitar and Juliette looked incredible in her mini gingham Jacadi dress from her Godfather.

The pictures aren’t top quality – but we were a bit busy with those 10+ kids and keeping the birthday girl happy all day.

I had a “moment” when everyone was singing to Juliette and she was sitting in her high chair wondering what was going on, I felt so lucky and proud of my little baby – and then she ate her mini cupcake and licked the high chair afterwards like a girl after my frosting-loving heart.

xo

Hollyn

P.S. yes I wore blue gingham too because matching is my favorite thing ever with anyone…Shawn too