Ava's First Birthday Party!

After weeks of planning and collecting all the ideas from Pinterest and hunting out the actual supplies and decor items on the web, everything came together perfectly for Ava's first birthday party. I knew I wanted something soft and pretty for her, a cute little brunch. Originally the plan was the make majority of the items which I also found from Pinterest, but as I got closer to the party date, I had to improvise and search for items that didn't require too much work but would fit into her brunch. 

Store bought lemon curd from Trader Joe's and fig jam from the local supermarket went perfectly with simple scones I made that morning.

Tossed the berries in a little bit of sugar, except the strawberries

Decided to get prints of photos of Ava since birth to put as the background.

 Anything with a vintage and french flair I found through the website Save-On-Craft. The website has every kind of supplies you would need to decorate a wedding, baby shower, birthday, and/or any occasion. The mini milk bottles I got was much cheaper than other places I've seen. The paper straws was ordered from Etsy.com through a store that allowed you to select the styles you wanted for a set price.

The mini bottles were a hit with the different style paper straws

 Originally from my previous post, I did a test run on the pink ombre cake that I originally was going to make for her birthday, however due to time restraints, I ended up purchasing a cake from my favorite dessert restaurant in San Diego called Extraordinary Desserts. I got Ava the Shangri-La which is AMAZINGLY delicious. The cake contains white chocolate mousse, guava mousse, fresh strawberries and whipped cream are layered between vanilla cakes moistened with kirsch. I also love how the outside has off white and pink!

I ordered washi tapes from Etsy.com and made a little banner to put on her cake.

Costco mixed cookies in a jar!

Here is the final set up with the drinks in as well! I love it! Majority of the food I found at Costco, and surprisingly Trader Joe's carry a lot of miniature sized appetizers!

I was able to also make the pressed Italian sandwiches from the previous night using torta buns, salami, provolone cheese, pesto, and mayo all from Costco. The morning of the party, I cut each torta to make three small mini sandwiches and I wrapped it with parchment paper and pink/white baker's twine. Also since the food theme was more of a brunch, I decided to make a quick potato hash that I sauteed with onions, green bell peppers, and salt/pepper. I put a little in the mini cupcake liners I found at Michaels.

The two kinds of meatballs were also found at Costco that my friend sauteed and warmed up the morning of the party.  To cut time, I bought raspberry lemonade and guava juice I found at the market for refreshment.

The hardest item to find for her party was the cake stand. I saw so many beautiful white cake stands but with them costing $40+ just for one , it would of been extremely expensive to have multiple. I eventually came across this beautiful teal/blue 3 tier cake stand from Kohl's!! It was already on sale, plus an additional 30% off and free shipping, it was too good to pass up. In the end it gave the brunch table a nice pop of color and I was able to coordinate that to the strings for the balloons.

The strings attached to the ballons are just strips of plastic table clothes I found at PartyCity. This idea I also found on Pinterest!

Birthday girl enjoying her cake.

Ava playing with friends :)

Overall it was a perfect first birthday party for Ava, the party I had envisioned with the help of Pinterest came through and everyone had a wonderful time. Food was great and all the kids had a lot of fun. Now with two kids, I will have to start earlier planning for each of them since every birthday is special. Pin It Now!

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