So here we are. My third baby’s first birthday party. What feelings do I have about this? Well, all of them. The whirlwind of motherhood is spinning exponentially faster with each new addition. The years are blips and their sweet faces morph in warp speed until you’re staring at a toddler who seems minutes away from going off to college.
Before I get on with the presentation (the one where I show you all the silly DIY projects I labored over as a nod to the actual labor that occurred a year before this) let me remind you that when we celebrated Finn’s 1st Birthday I had newly discovered the practical implications of keeping parties simple. For me that means narrowing it down to a few key DIY projects that are fun for me to work on and can bring joy to my kids and our party guests. Now that we’re on to kid #3 I struggled with the idea of even having a party. However, I have been looking forward to throwing a girly themed party of this sort for awhile now and I think it’s only fair I at least try to throw each child a party for that milestone 1-year mark. We only had family over for this one, but I wanted to give it at least a little bit of effort.
Originally I had grand plans of keeping the theme really modern, with a unicorn cake so minimal that it had eyes, horn, sprinkles and little else. Well, once I thought to make gum paste roses it was all flowers after that. I won’t bore you in this paragraph with all the DIY deets. Instead I will list out some info for each project near the end of this post. Let me just say a moment how much I enjoyed celebrating this special day with my special girl. Even the fact that she hadn’t napped that day couldn’t keep her from smiling the whole time, showing just the right amount of curiosity about each present and taking a delicate taste of her sweet cake. It was relaxed and fun and emotional for momma. So basically, all the things it should have been.
The Details
- The Cake: DIY using marshmallow fondant, gum paste roses, gold sprinkles, pink luster dust, copper foil horn, black edible paper.
- Horn: rolled up some card stock to the shape I liked and covered with copper foil.
- Ears: white fondant, shaped and dried, then painted with food coloring, lemon extract, and pink luster dust.
- Roses: pre-made gum paste and shaped into roses. (fun but time consuming)
- Eyes: cut out of black sugar sheets using an x-acto knife.
- Marshmallow Pops
- Body: Large Marshmallows stuck on coffee stirrers. Inspired by this
- Horns & Ears: Gum paste twisted into horns using this method and shaped into ears
- Face: Used an edible marker to draw the eyes.
- Balloons – From Amazon, filled with helium at Party City
- The Cake: DIY using marshmallow fondant, gum paste roses, gold sprinkles, pink luster dust, copper foil horn, black edible paper.
- Horn: rolled up some card stock to the shape I liked and covered with copper foil.
- Ears: white fondant, shaped and dried, then painted with food coloring, lemon extract, and pink luster dust.
- Roses: pre-made gum paste and shaped into roses. (fun but time consuming)
- Eyes: cut out of black sugar sheets using an x-acto knife.
- Marshmallow Pops
- Body: Large Marshmallows stuck on coffee stirrers. Inspired by this
- Horns & Ears: Gum paste twisted into horns using this method and shaped into ears
- Face: Used an edible marker to draw the eyes.
- Balloons – From Amazon, filled with helium at Party City
- Wall Hanging – I already had the branch with greenery on it, I just tied some string to it and tied copper binder clips down them and clipped pictures of Remi’s first year of life.