Little Miss Onederful: Hazel's 1st Birthday Party

Since Hazel was born I've been calling her Little Miss Sunshine derived from two places: 1. One of my favorite childhood story characters AND 2. Her namesake (my grandmother, Hazel) who's favorite song was You are My Sunshine.  That said, I'd like to say that the idea for a Little Miss Sunshine themed party was a total no brainer, but that wasn't the case.  You see before having Hazel, I loved being a #boymom, but there was one thing that bummed me out slightly about not having a little girl and that was planning a cute girly party.  Don't get me wrong, I've had at blast with dinosaurs, superheroes, Pokemon and more but the desire to throw something a bit more girly still lingered.  Even while I was pregnant with Hazel and positive that I was having another boy I would browse Pinterest during my endless hours of pregnancy insomnia looking for possible girl-party ideas for the off chance that the baby within me turned out to be female.  Thus, the party that I THOUGHT I would have if baby #3 surprised us was a Sweet One party, themed around donuts and maybe ice cream.  After Hazel arrived and I KNEW that I'd get to plan a girly 1st birthday, I still liked the donut idea and even bought a large inflatable donut off the clearance rack when she was only a few weeks old.  As the year pressed on, I continued to save endless Sweet Pinterest ideas for the party, but throughout all of this I had a nagging feeling that it just wasn't the right theme.  While it would have made a cute party, it wasn't personal to our family or our little girl like Asher's Blue Truck or Avery's Roarrr!! parties had been.  Then, sometime around the end of summer I began to consider a Little Miss Sunshine party and the more I thought of it and talked about it with my mom and a few others, the more I felt that this was the way to go.

The front of Hazel's party invitation.

So, sometime in the late fall I committed to a Little Miss Sunshine party but I still wasn't sure how to tie the theme a little closer to our little girl.  You see, Hazel was and is our Little Miss Sunshine but she is also so much more!  In addition to being our Little Miss Sunshine, she can also be Our Little Miss Curious, Little Miss Stubborn, Little Miss Princess, Little Miss Naughty, Little Miss Giggles, Little Miss Busy, Little Miss Whoops, Little Miss Trouble, Little Miss Hugs and more.  The list goes on and one.  Then one day I saw the idea of having a Little Miss Onederful party for a baby girl's 1st birthday.  While the post I saw was a generic version of this theme, I immediately thought that that would be the PERFECT way to tie Hazel's 1st birthday to Little Miss Sunshine and all of the other Little Miss Characters.  From this point forward, I took the theme and ran (or walked like my 89 year old neighbor and her walker...who is surprisingly spry for a woman of her years).  For the boys I spent several weeks working endlessly on the details of their parties.  For Hazel that was not the case.  Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to put that amount of time and energy into the party, but with three kiddos and a birthday RIGHT AFTER Christmas that just wasn't going to happen.  I did what I could, getting invitations out before Christmas and in the end I was pretty pleased with the results...

The inside of Hazel's party invitation.

Decorations & Food:
Dining Room 

For the party decorations I decided on a yellow and pink theme with some other pops of colors.  While I did purchase a few things I also tried to reuse things I already had wherever I could.  One of my favorite things to get for any party I have is a cute roll of wrapping paper.  It always makes for a very easy cute and disposable table runner and if I don't use it all up it is great to have around for future present wrapping.  Thus, I decorated the dining table with a disposable pink table cloth, some yellow plates and napkins, a wrapping paper runner, two pink crates full of handmade Little Miss Characters (thanks to my SIL Erika) along with a framed picture of Hazel that I already had and some vases and paper flowers I'd purchased for her dedication party.

On the walls in addition to a balloon banner, and a pink pennant banner I purchased from Hobby Lobby, I made a Little Miss Onederful banner showcasing Hazel in her monthly photos and a Happy Birthday Hazel banner using the Little Miss and Mr. Men characters.

As mentioned above, the Little Miss Characters on the table (and scattered around the Dining Room and Kitchen) were made by my SIL Erika.  Lucky for me she purchased a Cricut shortly before Hazel's party and took it upon herself to make several of the adorable characters for the party.  I had wanted to do this myself, but never had time so I was GRATEFUL that Erika made them.  They turned out perfect and were one of the focal points of the party!

For dessert, I made cupcakes and a smash cake for Hazel.  As I wrote in my last post, I found a cake on Pinterest with a fondant Little Miss Sunshine character on the top and wanted to recreate it for Hazel's cake.  I have never used fondant before and wasn't sure how it would go, but I also figured it couldn't be that different than playing with play dough and I was up for the challenge.  I found a recipe for marshmallow fondant online and went for it.  It took some work to kneed the marshmallow to the right consistancy and it was quite messy, but thanks to some food-safe gloves I'd had Eric pick up for me, it wasn't hard and the cleanup was surprisingly easy.  I probably spent about 2 hours to make it and I have to admit that it wasn't completely edible as I did use a small foam ball for the center but I was very happy with how it turned out and I will definitely try fondant creations someday again.

For the cake to sit on I found this adorable little cake plate at Hobby Lobby one day for $6 that I couldn't pass up.  It was the perfect size, color, everything for the party! <3

For the dessert table decorations, found a yellow table runner at Hobby Lobby that I used for the base.  Then I added some paper flowers and glass vases that I'd purchased for Hazel's dedication party along with the Little Miss Book Collection we'd give her for her birthday, a Little Miss doll of my own that Eric bought me many years ago and some yellow frames that I already had and filled with pictures from Hazel's first year.  I also added in some pink candies that I'd picked up, some cute sunglasses I found for party favors and then wrapped some boxes to hold the cupcakes.

Erika also made this adorable onesie for Hazel to wear (which I changed her into before her cake smash to keep her party dress clean).

Kitchen & Living Room

For the remainder of the house, I kept things really simple.  In the Kitchen I made some chalkboard posters of Hazel's Little Miss character traits, added a yellow pennant banner that I'd picked up and then used some paper flowers that I already had and more of the Little Miss Characters that Erika made to decorate.

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In the living room, I made a small Welcome to Laughterland sign for the front door, let the boys hang some balloons and crepe paper and then placed out some pictures of Hazel from her first year along with the Little Miss Books we'd given her for her birthday for people to read at their leisure.

Favors: 

For favors, I wanted to provide the kids with a basket of goodies that they could pick to make their own goodie bags.  However, when Avery realized my plan he was not impressed and insisted that I fill each of the bags for the kids "so they can be surprised."  Needing to occupy him so that I could keep my sanity (or what's left of it) I gave him the honors of filling the bags and then placed the extras along with play dough that I purchased for the kids to make their own Mr. Men and Little Miss Characters in baskets for the kids.

Here is a list of what we had for the kids to enjoy:

-Little Miss Fabulous Candy Bracelets

-Little Miss Magic Bubbles

-Little Miss Fun Play Dough

-Little Miss Sunshine Sunglasses

-Mr. Bounce Balls

-Mr. Greedy Applesauce & Candy

-Little Miss Naughty Whoopie Cushions

Party Time:

With the preparations ready it was time for the party to start, and since I really didn't have much on the agenda itself that mostly just meant it was time for some visiting with friends and family mixed in with with food, cake, presents and some play dough.  ;)

The Birthday Girl hanging out with Grandma K.

Can't have a Little Miss Sunshine with out some cool shades, right? ;)

Hazel talking to Grammy M.

Words cannot express how much I love this kid!

For this party I kept the food CRAZY simple.  Usually, I work really hard to come up with names for all of the food and to somehow tie the food into the theme of the party.  This time around I didn't bother with any of that.  Instead, my mom made some Cocktail 'Lil Smokies and Sloppy Joes and Eric's mom made Chicken Salad and a Kale Salad and we combined those with some veggies and dip, fruit, Jello Jigglers and chips.  It was a tasty, yet simple meal and thanks to the invaluable help of my mother and mother-in-law I didn't do ANY of it other than the grocery shopping!!

To drink, we offered water, coffee and some raspberry lemonade punch with what was supposed to be raspberry sherbet but I think ended up being strawberry ice cream.  Either way it was delicious and I'd definitely make it again!

Eric let Hazel try Grandma K's 'Lil Smokies.  She was a BIG fan and ate several!

After dinner we had some more visiting and playtime for the kids (who spent almost every second of the party playing in the basement).

Asher taking a few moments of the party to play with his favorite little Birthday Girl.

While the kids played in the basement, I brought the play dough I'd purchased downstairs for them to create their own Little Miss and/or Mr. Men Characters...

Micah's "Mr. Mustache"

Asher's "Little Miss Sunshine"

Hudson's "Little Miss Ponytail"

Luke was a BIG fan of the kids' new grocery store and spent the majority of the party working the store to bring home the bacon for his mom and dad!  

When Luke was done playing grocer, DJ Gabe took over the counter to support his 'equipment' and mix us some tunes!

Luke showing his mom Caroline his earnings for the day! :)

She looks really impressed! ;P

After we gave everyone a little time to let their stomachs settle, we changed Hazel into her Little Miss Onederful onesie, sang Happy Birthday to our little girl and then enjoyed dessert.

Family photo with the Birthday Girl.

Happy Birthday to You!

Video: Happy Birthday to Hazel

When it was Asher's first birthday, he went at his smash cake very cautiously, but slowly made his way into the mess.  Avery on the other hand literarily dove into his cake.  Thus as we neared Hazel's first birthday we wondered if she would be an 'Asher' or an 'Avery'.  Turns out she was exactly who/what we should have guessed: Hazel.  She did it her own way, poking at it and licking her fingers but honestly she wanted very little to do with it.  I think the combination of her own exhaustion and the room full of people staring at her gave her a bit of stage fright and she just wanted out of her high chair.  Therefore, instead of the typical one-on-one baby-meets-cake smash experience, I allowed her to sit on my lap while she poked and prodded the cake and licked frosting off her fingers.

(2) Videos: Hazel's Smash Cake Experience (or lack thereof)

Baby Girl was MUCH happier eating cake on my lap than in her chair...especially after I gave her a spoon to eat with! Kid doesn't like eating with her hands!  :)

Video: Cake Is Better On Momma's Lap

Finally, with the cake consumed, the party was starting to wind down.  We finished things off with some present opening, a little more mingling and then before everyone made their way out the door, the kids found the whoopee cushions I'd purchased, adding a little lively entertainment to the party.

Since I'd purchased the kids mini (Little Miss Naughty) Whoopee Cushions, Eric decided to introduce the GIANT Whoopee Cushion I'd given him for our anniversary (because that is what you buy your husband after 17 years of marriage) to the kids.  The look on little K's face as he watch Eric blow it up was priceless! :)

Video: Big or Small, Whoopee Cushions are Hilarious! :P

Opening birthday presents.

Auntie Erika made Hazel her own Little Miss Sunshine bath towel.  We tried to get a picture of her in it, but she wasn't cooperating.

Naturally, I modeled it instead.

Finally, it was time to call it a night.  We said our goodbyes, hugged our visitors out the door, cleaned up the house and then headed straight to bed, exhausted but happy with another successful party and a ONEDERFULLY BLESSED family!

Watching our guests head out

Video: Closing Song of the Night

FB Post: And you thought YOU had a rough day! 😂 #littlemisssunshine#littlemissonederful

FB Post: My family. Asher may be Mr. Worry, but they didn't give that as an option and I debated between Mr. Funny, Mr. Noisy and Mr. Bump for Avery...it is a toss up, but I think the rest are pretty accurate. What Mr.Men/Little Miss Character are you? https://shop.mrmen.com/collections/family-portrait/products/family-portrait-6-family-members