party party || amelia's first birthday

 i'm just going to say this up front: i am a terrible party planner."oh, great thing to admit when you write about entertaining erin!", says everyone.hear me out. i like to throw parties. i like to plan them. but i have this problem where i don't leave myself enough time to do it the way i want to do it. for example, i started planning amelia's 1st birthday party when she was 11 months old. and when i say started planning, i literally mean i hadn't even picked a date until then. yikes.but it was all great! it turned out wonderfully, everything got done and i wasn't even stressed out. the best part was that amelia had fun, which is what i wanted out of all of it. i also wanted to be able to drink a vodka lemonade, and i got to do that too.we kept things really simple. no theme, just some fun pink streamers and gold balloons. i also printed out all of amelia's milestone photos and hung those from a pennant banner with mini clothespins so you could see her progression over the year. that was my favorite part of the party actually, it was so fun to see how she had grown! we grilled burgers, had potato salad and corn, and watermelon (it's amelia's favorite). there was cake (and adult beverages) for the guests, and amelia had her own little smash cake that she oh-so-tenderly smashed when the time came. there was beer and cocktails and the weather cooperated (by being insanely cold for august, but we'll take that over muggy and hot i guess?). wouldn't you want to come to that party??in addition to being terrible at planning parties on time, i am equally terrible at taking pictures during any major life event. so here is a nice little photo dump wherein i own two of the photos and the rest were taken by my sister maggie, without whom none of us would ever have any photographic evidence of big events. thank you mags.  

[opening grandma and grandpa hooley's gift - the vacuum!]

[thoroughly enjoying grandma and grandpa zauner's gift - the chair!]

[channeling her inner molly ringwald in her new denim vest from auntie mary]

thank you to everyone for all the sweet birthday wishes you sent the little one last month. it meant a lot to Mister Man and me, and i know amelia would appreciate them if she had social media/could read. she is enjoying being one very much...she thinks it's pretty much the greatest thing ever, and we think that she's a pretty great one year old too.

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*as an aside, we spent less than $200 for the entire party, including invites, drinks and food for 25, and decorations. all decorations were bought at target, we made sure to buy any food we were able ahead of time with coupons, we sent out online invitations, and kept drinks really simple. we also didn't buy her any gifts...she got plenty of new things from her family and friends, and she doesn't understand anything like that yet. all that to say, if you want to, you can still have a fun party while keeping things reasonably priced and in a budget. etsy doesn't need to own you! :)