I'm so happy to finally be sharing what a wonderful family time we had celebrating our little Emma! (Remember when I was trying to pick a birthday party theme?!) I planned to write all about it on Monday....and here we are on Wednesday afternoon. Se la vie. ;)
Because our house is tiny & we wanted to use some of our outdoor space, we included a rain date on the invitation....and ended up using the rain date because Aiden & Emma were sick on the original party day! But, a week late, it was still super fun and everyone was able to make it!
We served crockpot chili (which I meant to turn into a "DIY chili bar, but I compleeeetely forgot to set out the toppings!), a veggie & dip platter, chips, cornbread, & fruit. Though making all the food was more effort than having Chipotle cater it--and I might be tempted to go that route next time--making the food was still pretty easy and inexpensive. Because the original party date got cancelled, I was able to freeze the chili's ground beef, chopped peppers, and chopped onion. Then, the following weekend, I dumped all the frozen ingredients in with the canned ingredients. Hallelujah, it still worked. :)
It was a sunny, 60-degree day and the kids had fun playing in the hay and on the small play set we had in our backyard. It gave the great-grandparents a chance to have the house quiet while they chatted! Everyone was inside for food, and then again for cupcakes & presents, but it didn't seem unbearably crowded...at least not to me. Moral of that story: even if you have a 1,000-square-ft space, you can still host things!
I didn't use most of my original pumpkin patch first birthday ideas, but I did try to carry out the theme by decorating with pumpkins. I also made tissue paper garlands with gray, white, orange, and pink, and we had hay bales out front and hay in the backyard. We had cold cider in a pitcher and hot cider in a crockpot with ladle...Plus, the cupcake desserts were pumpkin muffins with a candy corn on top. That's as pumpkin-patchy as things got. ;)
Related: What hosting in a small house is REALLY like, and Aiden's lowkey first birthday
I hope our families had a fun time, because I sure did. The food took care of itself, everyone got along, I got to blow bubbles with the little ones, my mother-in-law fed Aiden, people played with Emma & Aiden so I could talk to other people...it was just so, so nice. (And the moral of THAT random story is that hosting doesn't always end up being stressful!)
What's your favorite food to serve (or eat!) at a party? What fall events have you gone to recently?
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