A Little Golden First Birthday

It's time to blog the birthday. The day I wasn't so sure about. I kept telling myself that I'd wake up on the morning of the 4th and she'd still be my Millie. But I had to see it to believe it.  

And my Millie she was. My Millie plus a cold that decided to show up. We had her spend most of the day in her diaper-just how she likes it. It was a wonderful day of playing, cleaning, and wiping a cute little nose.

Then her present from us showed up so we stopped everything and helped her unload and put it together.

A radio flyer. Both Jerrel and I have wonderful yet destructive and dangerous childhood memories with a radio flyer. So we wanted to pass that along to our own offspring. Millie LOVES her wagon. We have already gotten so much use out of this thing! 

We then tried to show her the beauty of the cardboard box. She wasn't so sure, she's caught on now though. I'd like to think she had the very best first birthday. Grandmas, a Grandpa, and an Uncle came by to give her kisses and wish her a happy day and she just got to be home with us. Oh and she got some extra graham crackers. All in all, a good day in the day of a one year old. 

And guess what? I woke up the next day...and the girl was still my Millie. Whew. 

We went on with our week and finally Sunday rolled around-party day. I haven't blogged about her party "theme" or the prep. Now that it's all came together though, I've gotta share. 

I have a collection of Little Golden Books specifically with the illustrations by Eloise Wilkin. Her style is so soft and dreamy. My mom started the collection for me years ago. I was trying to figure out a birthday party direction, I wanted classic, fun birthday but with something that made it special. I was looking through my collection about a month ago and it clicked. Books! Little Golden Books. I hit Pintrest and I found a couple cute ideas to jump from and just kinda made the rest up as I went along! 

So with the books I had in my collection I had a good start. We took a trip to Tiedes in Overton-holy books. I looked through every Little Golden they had, bought too many, and was set to start.

Letters from Hobby Lobby. Pom Poms made from yarn and dowels we had. Daisy embellishments from Hobby Lobby. Little Cast Iron Animals-found in a box bought at the Thrift Shop!

I wanted the house to feel special but also still like home. So I decorated with the books everywhere I could and used Millie's toys as knick knacks. 

I found this giant "M" at Joann.com. I then had color copies made of my favorite pictures from the books. (I couldn't bare to cut them up.) Then Mod Podged the pages to the letter.

When I was done I noticed my brush had shed in a pretty noticeable spot. Annoying. So I added these wooden letters I had in my craft supplies and a button. Necessity is the mother of invention you know.

A pad of coordinating scrapbook paper and some more page copies created this darling pennant. Some scraps of fabric from Millie's birthday dress tied between triangles tied in more "golden" and our birthday girl. 

And another pennant above the sink. 

Our Chalkboard wall was transformed to all about Millie (not much different than the usual.) and birthday with the scrapbooking paper.

I continued to find spots for Little Golden Books. 

I used an old door in the our living room to create a timeline of sorts. String and silver binder clips made this easy-not dating your pictures when you get them printed made this a nightmare. Learn your lesson from my mistake. For everything that is holy-date your pictures people! Using this font-it looks pretty close to the real Little Golden font! 

We had a pretty nice spread. Fruits, veggies, dips, Spritz cookies-to harken some vintage glory, and Millie's favorite-homemade Graham crackers. They are so good! We invited all of her Granparents, Uncles, two girl friends, three of our own friends to a total of around 20 people. we had a houseful quickly. We all made a decentdent in the grub!

Uncle Evan and Kenzie brought this adorable Eileen's cookie as Millie's present. Frosted. Chocolate Chip. Great now my mouth is watering again. 

Then of course we had birthday cake. I decided on Pioneer Woman's Strawberry Shortcake. If you have ever had this cake you understand why this was a valid choice. 

Millie received so man lovely things. Two of her uncles tried to put this together without instructions. That method worked for a while...

Before long their older brother had the instructions though and then it finishing touches were put on. Thanks Uncle Jesse and Jake! (And Daddy!)

 It was a wonderful afternoon with everyone. We talked, laughed, ate cake, and I got emotional while singing Happy Birthday to my Millie. It just all came to a head there. Oh well.

And I still look tired.

Our girl had such a special LIttle Golden First Birthday. She did so well with all these people in her house and loved visiting everyone.

One birthday party in the books. Get it?

Blessings!