Laila's 1st Bday Party

I had a week and a half to put together a party for Laila (that wasn't supposed to happen but did). The night before her birthday party was her real birthday and so amidst all the chaos of preparing the chapel, decorations, and food, we had to make an ER run because she fell off the bed headfirst. That was a scare, and we were irritated that she had a big lump on her forehead come party time, but at least she was ok.  We threw her a cupcake themed party, infusing the colors pink and blue, inspired by this picture by our photographer friend, Stephanie J.

 The week of her party, Bo was off island, so I spent restless nights conceptualizing and finalizing what I wanted, including this invite that took me forever to get right. Tissue pompoms were a BIZNATCH to make too, but I was trying to see if I could decorate WITHOUT the use of balloons. Luckily we had the help of some young (and skinny) family friends who helped get fish line across the chapel hall so we could hang the different colored pompoms. Our round tables were covered in different shades of blue and pink and the centerpieces were colored pink and blue plates taped to plastic margarita glasses that were flipped upside down to look like a single cupcake stand. It was way cute. Each plate was filled with an assortment of cupcakes topped with mostly homemade frostings. We had over 400 chocolate, yellow, rainbow, red velvet, and guava cupcakes (thanks to my friends for baking help), a BIG strawberry cupcake for her birthday candle, and a full pre-sliced sheet cake. The food: Fried chicken, Lu pulu, Sweet potato, rice, potato salad, teriyaki meatballs, egg fu yung, chop suey, raw fish, fai kakai, otai, and fruit salad and later, homemade cheesecake and my cousin Sina's yummy mini cupcakes. 

We reserved the primary room for the kids and filled it with huge balloons and a face painter. Instead of goody bags I had my sister bake reeses peanut butter topped brownies and her kids stuffed them in treat bags with thank you labels. Those were fun! My father-in-law also hired a one-man band but he was eating most of the time, and a dj that wasn't actively dj-ing, mostly playing a playlist. Lol. Next time I'll just play cds. It was cute and fun and even though I barely slept for a week and a half, it was worth it.

Her bday attire, before she snatched that Tongan lei off

 

 Laila blowing out her candle on her big cupcake

I didn't let her attack her big cupcake, instead she ate a little one

  

Big sister's face design

 

Can you see her head bump? Lol.