Life, Love, and Marathons: Cecelia's "One in a Melon" 1st Birthday Party

On Saturday, we celebrated Cece's 1st birthday by throwing a "One in a Melon" party for about 40 of our friends and family members. The watermelon themed party was held at our neighborhood park which had a decent sized shelter house as well as two playgrounds for the kids to play on. I was really nervous on Saturday morning when it was storming that our party plans would have to be changed to an indoor party at our house but somehow the rain blew over and we were able to have it outside. We had lots of yummy food (with plenty of leftovers!), a delicious cake that my mother-in-law made, and a pinata for the kids. All in all, it was a successful party and from what I heard, the kids had a great time as did the adults! Hopefully this will be our last big party we throw for awhile--Lucy is already talking about her 4th birthday party in September and wants a tea party which will limit her number of guests.

Invites

Setting up everything (with the help of my parents since Todd had run out to go pick up the food)

We ordered chicken fingers & texas toast from Raising Cane's, mac & cheese from Noodles & Co, salad from Panera, and I made a fruit salad as well as a cucumber tomato feta salad

We had chips, pretzels, watermelon slices, applesauce pouches, and drinks as well

Double layer cake made by my mother-in-law; the bottom cake was pink inside with chocolate chips to look like a watermelon and was actually watermelon flavored too!

Watermelon candy and the cookie platter

I had sidewalk chalk favors for the kids (they matched perfectly too with the lime green and pink containers) and bubble wands for the two little babies who came; the pink & green bags were for the kids to collect their candy in from the pinata

The birthday girl!

She was confined to the highchair for a little bit while I was trying to set everything up

Once guests started to arrive, all the kids went over to the playground; Cece & Lucy played with PaPa

Cece & PaPa (and I'm hoping if this weekend was any indication that Cece is getting over her fear of "strangers")

Once all the food had arrived, the kids immediately started eating; I love that the shelter house had 5 large picnic tables but also 1 small one for kids

People getting food

Cece chowing down

While I was feeding Cece, Todd & I were able to visit with our families as well; my parents came as did Todd's parents and his sister's family

Random candid shots (my dad was our unofficial party photographer and took a ton of great pics as always)

Cece was the first to hit the pinata (we were initially going to blindfold the kids, which is why Cece has that black bandana on her head, but realized they would struggle enough to hit it hard enough without being blindfolded)

Lucy taking a turn at hitting it

Once all the kids had a turn, we let our 10 year old nephew take a swing at it with hopes he would break it and he was successful

Cece started crying! She apparently didn't like that the pinata broke

Everyone grabbing candy

Family photo before cake

Singing happy birthday

I love how she's looking at Todd here while he blows out her candle

Just like she did with her cupcake on her birthday, she started by carefully picking off icing little by little

Mmmm!

Then eventually she just stuck her whole hand in

There was no stopping her!

I loved the bright colors of the icing because it made it that much better when it was all over her mouth

All smiles after eating about a third of the cake

She even gave me a lick of icing

And then she cried when I had to wipe her off

Lucy enjoyed her slice of cake too

This was the inside of the bottom layer that was watermelon flavored

After the party, we cleaned up, packed up all the leftover food, and headed the half mile back to our house. Todd's family was staying the weekend so they came over also and we hung out the rest of the afternoon. Once Cece was up from her nap, she opened presents and the girls played with their cousins.

Lucy helping Cece open presents again

Pulling out the tissue paper

My aunt & uncle gifted Cece with her own bitty baby (which was actually my cousin's when she was little but rarely played with it)

Lucy was so excited that Cece has her own bitty now so they can play together (and Lucy even received a present too as my aunt & uncle gave her a couple outfits for bitty)