So this weekend my friend Erin visited and we went…well…everywhere. I’ve got a super cool giveaway coming up from Connecticut Tourism so I’m saving three dozen (or maybe slightly more) of the photos for that post but I have a VERY pressing question for you today:

Formal shorts – A Thing or Not A Thing????

Close up of my shorts

On Suzanne:

Shirt: Dress Barn
Shorts: Old Navy
Shoes: ModCloth
Purse: Jason Wu for Target
Necklace: Target

I didn’t actually ask Erin to give me a rundown of her entire outfit because that would have been sort of weird. So maybe she can tell us where she got that really cute dress in the comments.

I told E I was going to wear formal shorts and he laughed at me. I say they’re just as good as a skirt except more comfortable with less of a chance of accidentally flashing my underwear when I fall off my RIDICULOUS shoes.

Either way, I like them. Unfortunately they were not lucky formal shorts. Stupid magic unicorn slot machine took all my money. True story.

The Theme: Winter sparkle snowflake party, with glitter, pale pink and blue accents
The Location: The entire first floor of my house

This post is going to be HUGE, so if you have no interest at all in Caroline’s party please come back in a few days when it’s been bumped off the front page. I don’t want to put in a page break and have people think I’m trying to trick them into more page views. I get my page views the honest way – exploiting my children and friends!

The Decorations:

Dining room

Tree branch sprayed with snow-in-a-can

Ruffled crepe paper trees from this tutorial found on Pinterest

Living Room

Snowflakes cut from printer paper (Google “snowflake templates” for ideas)

My clothes pin photo display re-purposed as Caroline’s year in photos display!

Epsom salt in mason jars to look like snow

Glitter play dough party favors (more details in this post), yarn wreath, mirror frosted with snow-in-a-can

Yarn wreath, $1 picture frame ornament from Target

Chandelier decorated with dollar store garland & ornaments

Doily garland

The orange high chair didn’t match my theme, but a paper table cloth and a little tulle fixed it!

Fake snow everywhere!

The Food:

Hot cocoa and cocktail bar – the Keurig made it SO EASY!

I bought every single Christmas mug at Goodwill

Mini marshmallows, egg nog, powdered sugar, crushed candy canes, vanilla syrup, pink sprinkles, whipped cream, coconut flakes. Also on the bar: dark and milk hot cocoa, cider, Bailey’s, vanilla vodka, coconut rum, peppermint schnapps, mini candy canes.

Cucumber sandwiches, candy cane blossoms, red peppers & dip

Smoked salmon, dill & cream cheese on herb bread

Cupcakes (from a box!), my favorite frosting, edible sugar paper snowflakes bought at Stop & Shop

Sparkling cranberry brie bites. You know how sometimes you seen an idea on Pinterest and think “yeah, there’s no way that idea is going to be as awesome in real life”? This one was JUST AS AWESOME.

Thumbprint cookies, gooey vanilla sparkle cookies, fruit & dip, sugar cookies, ginger cookies, mini pastas on sticks with vodka, marinara, and alfredo sauce.

Coconut snowballs

Cream cheese mints, lemon meringues

The pasta on sticks was a great idea… for grown ups. Next time I’ll get less pointy things.

Milk bottle snow men. Not quiet as cute as on the interwebs, but still cute.

Lemon cake (more boxed mix!) tinted 3 shades of pink

Tiny cake baked in a tomato can, covered in sprinkles & topped with “Caroline” written in chocolate

Don’t even THINK about taking her cake away

The Fun:

Glitter play dough & cookie cutters on a kid-sized table

All the planned activities in the world can’t stop the kids from getting every toy out of the toy box

DIY pull string pinata (more here) was a hit, even though it didn’t work exactly as planned. I had to shake most of the candy out after the ribbon holding it up broke, but the kids didn’t care one little bit.

DIY snowglobes were cuter in theory than in reality. They were kind of leaky and some of the trees dyed the water purple and the glue was messy, but everyone went home with one!

Sharing strawberries with a friend

Refusing to wear her hair bow

Dance party!

These two are TROUBLE

Playing with Grandma

Somebody got a pony for her birthday! (She’s kind of scared of it though)

Family photos with two kids – there is ALWAYS someone not looking.

Holy crap, that was ridiculously long. I think I got all the links and recipes in there but if you’re looking for something let me know. My Pinterest board for the party (with most of the ideas I did use and some really good ones I didn’t get around to) can be found here.  I’m sorry most of the photos are terrible – it gets dark REALLY early here so I had to use the flash after the first 30 minutes of the party. It was definitely a great time and I know Caroline enjoyed herself. I hear everyone’s kids slept really well on Saturday night so I think they ran off all the sugar I pumped into them before they went home. Thank you to everyone who came and especially to my mother-in-law Carol who flew all the way from Ohio just to help me make the food and watch Little Evan for a few hours!

And Happy Birthday Caroline!

Here’s how it went down:

No, I’m not having a party for Caroline’s 1st birthday. It’s so close to Christmas, people will be out of town or busy with other stuff. I know, I’ll throw a Halloween party and that will get my need to throw a party every 6 months out of my system. I mean, obviously we’ll have a cake. A cake isn’t a party. I’ll make a really nice cake and put up some streamers maybe a few balloons. Let me just check the internet really quick for ideas.* Oooo look at these cute winter cupcakes I saw on the internet! I’ll just start a Pinterest board for Caroline’s First Birthday but it’s not like I’m going to invite a zillion people and make fifteen different kinds of cookies. Maybe just three. Ok seven. And I’ll make just a handful of invitations. Ok ten. Ok twenty five. And sure, Mother-in-Law, you should definitely fly in from Ohio for the party – I mean NON-PARTY – because it’s going to be amazing. Twinkle lights and sparkly snow and silver sequins and doilies everywhere. Hot cocoa bar! Hand cut snowflakes! Sparkles! GLITTER!!!!!!!!

Truly, I’m a little jealous MY birthday isn’t in December because it’s kind of awesome. Everywhere we go there are lights and ornaments and Christmas decorations and as far as Caroline is concerned they are all for her. Our family adventures are all super fun and usually end with candy canes. Everyone is full of well wishes and good cheer and my adorable little munchkin face red-headed elf baby shines where ever she goes. It’s magical.

Here’s a peek at what I’ve been working on for her just-a-tiny-bit overboard first birthday!

*WHOOPS. OBVIOUSLY, this is where things went downhill. Or uphill. Whichever way leads into the pile of magic twinkle lights, glitter and fake snow.