Des turns one!

On Sunday, our baby boy turned ONE!  I can hardly believe it has been a whole year!  It just does not seem like that long since we were checking ourselves into the hospital as oblivious as we could be about what was to come.  We love you sweet baby boy!

We celebrated on Saturday with a little birthday party.  My goal was to keep it as low stress as possible, and for the most part, it was! I know you might be thinking… Okay, so you made all these decorations and cupcakes, how is that low stress?  The trick is to keep it simple.

Remember those felt letters I blogged about here?  So simple, thanks to my Babylock embroidery machine.

Speaking of felt… I was so excited to reuse my felt arrow garland.  Still one of my favorite projects for baby.

Another great way to keep things low stress: Make cupcakes ahead of time and freeze them!  I baked them a week ahead and stuck them in the freezer before they were completely cooled.  It makes them super moist and delicious!  On the morning of the party, we made some cream cheese frosting using this recipe and iced them using my Wilton cupcake decorating set.  I used Wilton lollipop sticks and washi tape to make the flags ahead of time. (Riding in the car for a while?  Take your washi tape and sticks with you!)

I had originally planned  to make Des his own little mini layer cake, but that flopped.  So, we moved on to Plan B.  In the long run, the little cupcake was the way to go.  I stitched out a felt number one using the Knobby Letters design from A Bit of Stitch and stuck it on his cupcake.  Once again, super simple.

Des looks a little worried about the fact that everyone is staring at him and singing… He forgot about it pretty quickly though, when he realized what was on his tray…

My talented Zachary designed his ONE shirt and screen printed it for him to wear at his party.  He used a similar design for the invitations.

Since the weather decided not to cooperate, we put tables and chairs in the garage for people to enjoy their chili and cornbread (Thanks, Cindy!).  Zachary’s dad even boiled some peanuts for us!  We used leftover burlap from my brother’s wedding reception and decorated with Des’ favorite toys and books.  See… Simple!

Overall, the day was perfect!  Happy Birthday, Desmond Brennan!