Alice’s first birthday – 2 of 4

You’ve seen the outside of the house – now check out what I did inside.

For the mantle, I ordered a $5 2′x3′ engineer print from Staples and attached that to a piece of foam board ($5 Staples).  I loved how it turned out, and so did Alice.  I added a few other framed photos of her too.

I also made a photo garland.  Alice was born on February 17, and I took a photo of her each month on the 17th (still do, actually).  I printed out one from each month along with a newborn photo taken at one week, gave it a paper mat, and strung them all together.  I added a hot air balloon ornament on either end to coordinate with the ornaments dangling from the pussy willow branches in the vase on the mantle.

I also printed out a bunch of photos from the year and put them under plexiglass on our coffee table.  Alice loves to look at those too.  (Yes, I know the table scrunchy looks awful, but the corners of that table are too sharp for a clumsy baby to be around.)

For the center of the dining room table, I made a balloon topiary to match the balloon wreath on the front door.  We also had guest signature art.  My mom painted a picture of a baby girl in a pink dress with lots of balloons, and the guests signed the balloons.  We’ll frame it for Alice’s play room and, when she’s tired of it, it’ll fit into a scrapbook so she’ll always have it.

In the foyer, I attached a bunch of enormous balloons to a basket, reminiscent of a hot air balloon.  Alice was supposed to sit all cutely in the basket for some pictures, but she had other ideas.

Now on to my favorite part – the dessert table.  I sewed name bunting from scraps from her baby quilt and hung that against a piece of foam board I covered with aqua cloth.  We hung a couple of model hot air balloons from the ceiling – I just love them, and we’ll be hanging those in her play room soon.  The cake was super cute – an orange cat in the basket of a hot air balloon.  And my mom made hot air balloon shaped cookies, and we had hot air balloon shaped cake pops.  I had some little suitcases, a couple of art books, and a small Eiffel Tower model to complete the travel look.  Oh – and, just for fun, I stitched up a table runner and wrote her monogram on it.

Last, but not least – the high chair and smash cake.  I got an old wooden high chair for super cheap off of Craigslist, painted it, dangled some pompom trim on it, and made a goofy name banner.

Photos: Red Bridge Photography