Guess what happened… last month Bee turned TWO! I can’t believe how fast time flies, cliche but true. Bee is the last baby and still in the stage where she doesn’t actually have her own friends… we also share a birthday (so fun) so I think I will milk the joint party a little longer haha. A few months ago I had the idea of a “fruit and vegetable” theme but when I was brainstorming with my mom one day she threw out the “Farmer’s Market Birthday Party” idea. I obviously loved it and ran with it!

There were a few things I knew I wanted like a balloon arch, an adorable hand lettered sign done by my talented sister and a water slide. The rest I kind of put together last minute but my goodness that balloon arch was cute haha! I saw House of Lars doing them last year and knew that I needed one in my life! I did the chicken coop tunnel for the base just like she did then just kept layering and layering balloons. It worked on it about 2 hours for two days. I would not have been able to ever get this done without a balloon pump (I used this one). I ordered 9 different colors (about 25 of each color) and just inflated them to different sizes. I loved how it turned out! The worst past is that it’s so temporary ha!

My sister is a calligrapher and hand letter-er (IG: handwrittenjane)  so she came over a few weeks before and did the big Farmers Market sign, the menu sign, the food markers and the lettering on the carrot sign. I drew the carrots on this one and we were so proud of ourselves and our teamwork haha! I saw the inspiration from this pin HERE but couldn’t find the original source. The banner she did on craft paper is huge, almost 8 feet long and she hand painted that whole thing!

For the food table, I made some fresh salads, a big fruit salad and a veggie tray. I cheated and got Popeye’s Biscuits and Chick-fil-a! But you can’t beat them so why try?! I did however make homemade pickles veggies and cake balls! I saw these radish cake balls from an instagram post that @athomewithnatalie posted and I had to try them… they turned out so cute! I found the Homemade Pickled Veggie Recipe HERE. I also saw this gorgeous farmers market veggie tray here and I totally copied it!

My mom always makes our cakes and she did an amazing job this year as usual! I wanted a naked caked with berries and cream cheese frosting… she came over to assemble it and even had another cake that she did with chocolate frosting, sugared oranges and cherries!

For the bar, I used my new BARCART (!) and my new letter board for the Bar Menu :) I made spiked Berry Lemonade, Mint Limeade and Pink Grapefruit Jello Shots! I used this recipe and modified it from A Beautiful Mess.

As far as decor, I honest didn’t go too crazy because I already had the cute signage and balloon arch covered. I did get wooden flatware and red and white gingham plates and napkins HERE and HERE.  

I picked wildflowers from a field near my house and threw them in some vases… free decorations for the win! For the long dining room table, I placed tall raw vegetables and herbs in mason jars with water and lined them up to make a centerpiece. Over our fireplace I hung packets of seeds on a rope with clothespins… PS- seeds packs are .10 at the dollar store!

We also had a water slide in the backyard for the older kids, which is a must in Houston in the summer. We always use City Wide Party Rentals, and I highly recommend them! If you are in the Houston area.. look them up, they have great customer service.

I posted all about Bee’s Birthday Dress HERE!

We had such a good time and Miss Priss is lucky to have such an amazing groups of friends and family to help her celebrate her day! Let me know if you have any questions about where I found something or a recipe I left out :)

This past weekend I threw my favorite party yet! Well, besides my wedding :) My daughter and I share a birthday and since I was a little busy last year on my 30th birthday having her we decided to go all out this year! She is our last baby and I’ve never done a big 1st birthday party for any of my kiddos so I was excited. One of my favorite things are margaritas so last year in the hospital I told my family “next year I want a big fiesta birthday party with Mexican food and margaritas and a Mexican dress”! I called it Bee’s Birthday party but aren’t all one year old parties really for the parents anyway? It’s like YAY, WE SURVIVED!!

I loved how everything turned out, but my house is kind of dark and I was having so much fun I didn’t take many pictures. So, some of these pictures aren’t great and some aren’t even mine… (thanks friends for your cell phone pics). I wanted to post about it anyway so I can remember it forever! That and I’ve had a bunch of questions about where I got everything.

My favorite fiesta item that I bought was the Mexican Cutout Banners which I love and don’t ever want to take down!! I bought them from Amazon HERE. I bought 8 sets and hung them everywhere!! I actually hung them up weeks ago because I was so excited about them haha! My poor husband.

We invited a lot of people so for the first time ever I actually catered food, fancy right? We had fajitas, quesadillas and my personal favorite… chips with red sauce, pico, guacamole and queso! I also rented a margarita machine which was so fun! My sister came over early and helped me cut all of the fruit for the margarita bar. We made regular margaritas in the machine then everyone could add their own fruit to the top. My sister also broke our her cute calligraphy handwriting for some of the cups :)

I made two “Aguas Frescas”. One was just pineapple muddled in water and one was Lime, Mint and Kiwi.

The hit of the backyard was the water slide we rented! If you guys are in the Houston Area you have to check out City Wide Part Rentals! We rented the Tropical Water Slide. They were awesome to work with and the slide was super fun! (If you use them, mention TaylorMade and they will give you a discount!!) They came and set it up early which was a life saver because then I was able to set up the entire party while the boys played on the slide. I even went down it before the party started haha!

I borrowed Mexican Blankets from my friend Michelle and I just folded them and used them as table runners. I saw this cute centerpiece idea on Pinterest. I emptied out Mexican looking cans for vases and filled them with fake flowers.

I used this recipe and made some Churro Puppy Chow. It was so good and people couldn’t stop raving! I got all of the plates, napkins, straws, toothpicks and this blow up cactus from Oriental Trading Co.

I got our dresses from Amazon HERE and HERE. Can’t have a fiesta without a good Mexican Dress right? My mom, the family baker, made both of us a cake! She made me Tres Leches with fresh whipped cream and strawberries and she made Bee a butter cake with chocolate frosting.

She got to eat her cake and then she got a sink bath :)

I used all of Bee’s monthly pics to make a little collage on a chalkboard.

It was basically the best fiesta I’ve been to :) Thanks so much to all my family and friends for making it so special! I leave you with a million party pics! Let me know if I left any sources out!