Gianna's 1st Birthday.

I know I know.  I have been a bad blogger.  Its just that I have so much to write and yet nothing at all.  Its all random piddly things that I am not even sure I care enough about to blog about it so why would anyone else care to read it?  I am finding that I'm lacking the energy, time, or creativeness to even come onto blogger to make a post.  Do I go on everyday and post topics and pictures of my kid??  Should this place be more about me?  Is there even a me without my kid anymore?  I am at war with my blog.  Quite frankly, I thought of just throwing the whole thing out the window.  Meh.  For those who care... my apologies for being an uninspired slacker.

Enough about all that.

Gianna celebrated her FIRST birthday last weekend!! It was such a fun and wonderful time.  I decided to go with the Mod Monkey theme for her birthday.  I thought I could do a ton with the pink and green colors and with a splash of monkey thrown into the mix.

I found invitations that I fell in love with on etsy but the only problem was that they originally didn't have a monkey on it.  And if I was going to have a Mod Monkey party Gianna's invites had to have a monkey on them.  I asked the seller if she could put the monkey on the invite and after a few tweeks.... viola.  I loved them even more and purchased them.  (Obviously I put Gianna's sweet face in the invite.)

Mod Monkey Birthday Sample Invite

I loved our cake.  Seriously 100% loved it.  When it came time to cut the cake to give to everyone I almost didn't want to.  It was too dang pretty to mess up.  The inside of the cake was strawberry flavored with vanilla frosting.  I needed the inside of the cake to match the outside decor too.

Cake Table

Gianna's Mod Monkey Smash Cake.

Top of Gianna's Mod Monkey Cake.

The most beautiful Mod Monkey Cake I have ever seen. ;)

I wanted something fun for the kids to do so I picked up monkey masks at JoAnn Fabric.  They were only a dollar apiece and went perfectly with the theme of the party.

Craft Station.  Monkey Masks.

Green plates and napkins and pink forks, knives, and spoons.

Centerpieces.

I was a bit disappointed with the centerpieces.  When I ordered them I read that they were going to be five inches tall and instead they were about three.  They did not make the statement that I was hoping they would.  Although I was disappointed the kids loved them and took them home when the party was over.  

Gianna's High Chair.

I made this High Chair Banner with my Cricut Machine. 

Happy Birthday Banner Made with my Cricut.  

I bought a circut machine this summer and had a blast using it for the decorations for this party.  I found the directions to make a monkey on this blog.  Only change I made to it was by adding a little flower to the monkeys head.  I made the circular like portion of the banner by using the Lacy Lite Cartridge.

 For favors I made Oreo Pops with banana runts in a bag tied to them.  I attached a little circle that said thank you and gave one to each person that attended our party.

Oreo Pops

Since we did not have the party at our home in hometown it was important to me to display some pictures of Gianna in the room. I ended up putting up a newborn pic, 3 month pic, 6 month pic, 9 month pic and her birthday invitation.

The wall of G.

And now pictures of the party. :)

Coloring the Monkey Masks.

Gianna and her cousin, Landon, making their mask.

My family. 

Gianna and Nonna.

Gianna in her 1 birthday bib made by my best friends mom. 

Hubs grabbing grub.

Gianna's party dress minus her tights and shoes.  It got hot with all the guests so we took them off. 

Gianna is loved.

Opening up her gifts. 

Ohhh.. she's pretty.

What the heck are these?

All done opening gifts!  YAY!

And now its time for cake!

Sharing her cake.

Cake was everywhere.

Where did it all go?!

She loved her cake.  She ate and ate and ate.  I finally took the cake away cuz it looked like she was going to devour the whole thing.  Gianna was not please and was not having it. She screamed and cried until we gave it to her again.  She ate almost 99% of her cake.  Thankfully she did not have a tummy ache following that.  

All in all it was an amazing day.  We were so thankful for the family and friends who were able to come and spend this special day with us.  Gianna is such a lucky girl to have so many near and far who love her and want to be a part of her life.