We celebrated Delaney's first birthday yesterday with a houseful of her favorite people! It was so much fun! I'll admit we went a little nuts with this party, but now that it's all said and done it was so worth it! We picked The Very Hungry Caterpillar book by Eric Carle for our theme because Delaney loves that book! I started planning way back in November, and tried to do many of the projects myself. I found a lot of great online ideas, and I'm pretty proud of how everything turned out!
I found these invitations on a website (http://www.whattoexpect.com/forums/party-ideas/topic/the-very-hungry-caterpillar-eric-carle-invitations), and absolutely loved them. I tried to re-create them as best I could. Almost 100 cardstock circles later, this was my result! Aren't they cute?!?
I saw this wreath idea on OurBestBites.com. I though it would be the perfect door decoration for this and many more birthdays! It only took a couple TV shows to complete, and turned out adorable!
I saw these polka dot balloons at Party America, and thought they would be perfect for our theme. Delaney LOVES balloons, so we ended up with a ton of them! They made everything so colorful and fun!
Here's my caterpillar balloon creation. I had drawn a face on the red balloon. It was a simple way to incorporate our theme!
A benefit of a 6'5" husband/dad is that you can hand him 3 rolls of streamers, and you'll end up with this! Isn't it cute! This is the view from our front door!
One of the highlights of our party was the cake. Joy Kouba of enJoy Delectable Desserts made our amazing cake! It turned out so much better than I could have dreamed. I had originally planned to do cupcakes that were arranged in the shape of a caterpillar, but changed my mind and couldn't be happier! Delaney loved it too! I can't wait for another occasion to order a cake from Joy. She did an absolutely wonderful job!
Above the cake table I hung up pictures of every one of Delaney's monthly birthday pictures. Nothing like some sticky foam numbers, cheap clothespins, and orange polka dot ribbon to add a little flair to a blank wall!
We decided at the last minute on Friday to try to make the garage work for eating lunch! We borrow some tables and chairs from generous friends and family, hung some more streamers, and a party room was born!
Here's a picture of the partial lunch. I didn't get a picture taken after everything was set out. Both grandma's contributed to the yummy lunch, and Craig spent 13 hours smoking the meat on Friday. It was so good, I'm a little sad we don't have more leftovers! 
After lunch it was time to play! Delaney and all her friends enjoyed getting all her toys out of the toy box. It was so much fun to watch all of them play and interact together! There was lots of smiles, and very few tears! I'd call that a success. Poor Parker, Reed, and Henry were a little disappointed I think of the lack of boy toys and the abundance of pink!
Then, it was time for presents! Once again, Delaney was a very spoiled little girl. She got so many nice things...new books, cute clothes, and lots of toys. We had asked our families to help contribute to a swing set for Delaney's birthday, and like I said she was spoiled! We will be adding this to our back yard very soon! She also got a very sweet growth chart personally made by my friend Kaitlyn. She was a website (http://www.etsy.com/shop/owlpeople?ref=pr_shop)...go check out all her super cute stuff!
After presents it was time for cake! We finally found something Delaney got from me...my sweet tooth! This kids loves cake! She was not timid at all, and ate a lot of it before we finally took it away! She was so happy!
We attempted a few family photos before everyone left. Here's the best of the Bryant family I had on my camera! Not too shabby!
And well, this is the best one I had of the Mencke family. it is too funny not to share! I don't think it will make the Christmas card this year...
Thank you so much to everyone that helped us celebrate Delaney's big day! It was such a special day for all of us, and she is one lucky girl to have all of you in her life!***I'll do her 12 month post tomorrow after our doctor's appointment, so I have all the latest measurements!***
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