Penny's First Birthday Party

Our little cupcake

We had a lot of fun at Penny's first birthday party!  We combined it with our annual Halloween party and it was a smashing hit.

We really tried to keep is simple this year, or at least tamed down then what I had originally planned.  I took my time and decorated the house over the month leading up to the big day.  I had fun making a Trick or Treat banner and making the back porch extra spooky with Trent.

I knew I needed to plan a few activities for the older kids to keep them out of trouble occupied.
 
Daddy made his famous graveyard that they had to walk through,

Tommy wanted to play skeleton limbo and they decorated Halloween picture frames.
After all that fun was had we paraded over to the playground down the street and did an eye ball hunt.  The kids went crazy filling their bags with chocolate eye balls.  It was a lot of fun!

 The kids also had fun just playing in the backyard and I think that Penny got passed around more then I actually got to hold her!  But I was happy to share her with everyone that loves her, especially on her big day!

Then it was time to sing to our birthday girl! I decided to not make a cake (gasp! I know) but instead made
mini ghost cupcakes for the kids and large candy corn cupcakes for the adults.

We also served

friendly ghost chocolate pretzels,

and Halloween sprinkled marshmallow pops.  Even though I made several different things, it was really much easier and only took about an hour to make it all.  A cut themed cake usually takes me 8 hours from start to finish.

And for the favor we wrapped up friendly witches hats cookies.

I did make a small smash cake just for Penny, a little pumpkin.  It was so funny to watch her daintily pick at it and gently lick her fingers.  The boys were literally covered in their cakes, but not our sweet little girl.  She certainly brings the tender side of things to our house!

The day went by so fast.  I was good to see our family and friends come and celebrate our sweet girl with us!  The day was really perfect, except for the fact that we were all starting to come down with a cold.  Penny was in good spirits and even surprised us at how willing she was to go to everyone (she sometimes gets overwhelmed with crowds), but she was off just a bit.  I think she had fun though and really enjoyed seeing all the kids.

Happy Birthday Penny!!  We love you so very much!!