It was a month or so before the actual day that I started getting ready, as pretty much everything was DIY. My sprinkles theme had been set for a fairly long time, so I was able to research my ideas online to determine the look I was after. This led to Sprinkles, Sparkles and Confetti.
Picking A Theme
I have three daughters and I try to make their parties fit to their likes/personalities etc., and tailor it to them. My theme for my baby’s first birthday evolved from when I was pregnant. My oldest daughter always called her sprinkle and I loved it, so I knew very early she was going to have a sprinkles party.
It was also a particularly hard 12 months for our family, as not only did I have three girls under four, but I also lost my dad quite suddenly and having been so close it really shook us. When searching I found a print, ‘She leaves a little sparkle wherever she goes’ that reminded me so much of Olivia. She has a beautiful personality that will have you smiling, even in your darkest moment. She made my dad smile when nothing else could.
As for the confetti, I could think of no better way to celebrate a birthday than with lots of colour and a sprinkling of confetti. It meant that I could decorate the walls with lots of dot decals. Most of my decorations were honeycombs as they are so bright and gorgeous when displayed – they really create an impact. I had small, medium and large balls, then added in a few diamonds, fans and tassels around wherever I saw fit!
Choosing Decorations
There were three large honeycomb setups: above dessert table, as a backdrop for photos and just another thrown in! Then some smaller one scattered around with some streamer things I liked thrown in.
Kmart have a great party section, so I got the large honeycombs, fans, tassels, diamond honeycombs, glitter paper, honeycomb straws and lolly jars from there. Sparkly tablecloths were just material I got from Spotlight along with wool for the giant pom poms I made.
I just made my chalkboards using a word doc on the computer and a few downloaded fonts, and I made the giant freckle ‘thank yous’ for everyone by melting a lot of the girls’ Easter chocolate in egg rings and covering in sprinkles with a printed sprinkled with love tag.
I purchased a file from Etsy to print my sparkle print large enough to go behind the dessert table and for the invitation which set the scene. The high chair banner I made with glitter card and some tassels.
Confetti Cake
I made the cake from top to bottom. It was a three tier chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and peppermint buttercream with a hot pink ganache drip on top. I am actually pretty proud of myself for the cake. I have never attempted a drip cake before and I have never made buttercream – let alone peppermint flavoured – and it all turned out beautifully.
I cut the topper from some glitter cardboard a couple of weeks before the party after downloading a font I liked. It was a bit tedious as I had to cut it in plain paper, then trace into glitter card, then cut again, but it looked great so was all worth it.
The sprinkle ‘medley’ was just a mixture I made up out of all the different sprinkles, confetti, sparkly sugar, silver and pearl balls and little lollies that I call sixlets (I don’t think that’s their real name) that I had. Everyone loved the cake and even though it was huge, so much of it got eaten so I was wrapped.
The hardest part to plan was by far the cake. For so long I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I wanted to incorporate my theme, but keep it fun and worthy of her first birthday.
Food & Games
Food and games was probably the easiest. We had an 11am start, so lunch of course. I started with antipasto for the adults and kids’ party food favourites, like sausage rolls, party pies, cocktail frankfurts, fairy bread, etc. The kids’ party staples. Then I ordered 20 pizzas for lunch and then dessert included birthday cake, chocolate mousse pots, jelly, doughnut pops, marshmallow sticks, mini pavlovas, strawberry cheesecake bites, raspberry melting moments and the lolly buffet.
The games were mostly traditional one: musical chairs, pin the tail on the donkey, pass the parcel (although I did a balloon pop version. Each balloon had a chocolate inside and three had a rage button, if you get the button you won a prize!).
Favourite Parts On The Day
I had so many favourite parts to the day:
- Cutting her cake (that I was so very proud of) surrounded by our loved family and friends who have supported us through the last 12 months. She chose that moment to fall asleep in her daddy’s arms and missed the whole thing! Opening her eyes only when hip hip hooray surprised her and then quickly going back down.
- Watching the kids playing their party games and filling their lolly bags from the buffet to take home (they each had a few little things in them: girls had headbands, boys little trucks and bubbles, balloons, chocolate bars, party blowers).
For the most part, everything went really well. I always have a thousand ideas for a party and have to prioritise in the days leading up what I can actually achieve. On the day only a few things missed, but that always happens. Time is against you (especially with little kids in tow), so not all my decorations got setup and a couple of games were missed due to no time, but nothing important. The pizza was also very late, which is the reason Olivia fell asleep during the cake as it pushed dessert back. Overall, it was a gorgeous sunny May day, with our loved ones.
