LilliAnn Turns 1: A Button Birthday!

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A couple of weeks ago we had LilliAnn's first birthday party! I started thinking about Lil's birthday party several months ago. I wanted the celebration to be extra special and I wanted the "theme" to be really meaningful. There are lots of little girl first birthdays that are pink or princess themed, but  I wanted LilliAnn's to be a little bit different...girly, but still "babyish"...pink, but not just pink. I wanted one of our very best family friends, Suzanne, to help me plan the party because she's one of the most creative people I know. I've always just adored her ideas and style and I knew that she would plan the perfect first birthday...and boy, did she ever plan the PERFECT first birthday! About two months before LilliAnn turned one I got a text from Suzanne. "She's as CUTE AS A BUTTON and so much fun, please join us to celebrate LilliAnn turning ONE!" That was it!!! LilliAnn's first birthday would be a button-themed birthday! All of the ideas just took off from there. I couldn't wait to get started with the planning! 

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The story behind the buttons...

Suzanne had captured everything I had wanted for LilliAnn's first birthday with the button idea. I could never have come up with a more fitting theme! So what's with the buttons? You ask. 

Let me go back for a minute to when I was pregnant with LilliAnn.

One morning I was standing up on a chair, cleaning out the closet of the front bedroom that was soon to be my little girl's nursery. I had been really stressed that week because I had just found out that the baby was a girl and I could not think of a name that I just loved! I was praying about the name and pondering on all the cute baby girl names that I had ever heard. All of a sudden, as I grabbed some books from the top of the closet, a cigar box of buttons fell right on my head! It was great-grandma McKenzie's old cigar box full of vintage buttons. When she passed away, my name had been written on the box of buttons because she knew that I would want them. I played with them almost every time I went to her house as a child....organizing and studying each beautiful button one by one. She had covered the cigar box many years ago with floral, adhesive cabinet liner and I though it was the most beautiful box in the world. I was extremely close to my mother's grandmother, as I stayed with her every day after kindergarten until my mother would get off work. She was an extraordinary woman with a heart of gold. That morning, as I was picking up the buttons, once again studying each of them as I did when I was a child, the name of my unborn daughter hit me...almost as hard as the box that had just hit me on the head! "Of course!" I thought...."LilliAnn McKenzie!" My great-grandmother's name was Lillian McKenzie (my mother's maiden name is McKenzie) and my great-grandfather was the one that named my Kelli Ann, so it seemed fitting to name her LilliAnn McKenzie! It was like the box of buttons was a sign from my great-grandmother and from God telling me, "duh, Kelli Ann...you already know what to name her!" That afternoon I told my mother what had happened and she thought it was the most precious story. She said, "I'm going to call her Buttons!" So LilliAnn's nickname is "Buttons." My mom and her two sisters are the ones that mostly call her Buttons. Jeb says it sounds like the name of a dog, but I think it's adorable. 

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 The party favor tags that we had made

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How cute are these colors?

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 Angel Porch at Art & Soul Photography did an amazing job on these adorable invitations!

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Look at her holding up her "1"

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 Party pics! We used buttons to accent the fresh flower bouquets.

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 A custom painted, pink raspberry highchair embellished with colorful buttons and a cake accented with fondant buttons

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 Custom made "Happy 1st Birthday LilliAnn" banner and a color-coordinated party favor snack mix consisting of cheese goldfish, Cheerios, and Kix cereal

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Custom made curtain/backdrop in various fabrics, all shades of pink!

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Chocolate dipped marshmallows with sprinkles, pink polka dot straws, and individually wrapped polka dot "1" cookie party favors

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Custom made cupcake toppers and pink fondant button cupcakes

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 How cute is the back of this highchair? And the custom-made party hats? Adorable!!!

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Pink chocolate button lollipops? Why, of course!

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 Custom-made button "1" candle and three-tiered button cake fit for a princess! And it tasted even better than it looked...there wasn't a piece left!!!

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 Here are a few pics of my birthday girl! All of the pictures on this post were taken by me, but another photographer took most of the pictures, so I'll post those later.

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 My two precious babies

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 A better view of the cupcakes

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 We set up a backdrop for some fun party pics! My good friend Rachel, at Rachel Cleere Photography, came and took party pics of all the guests and lots more pics of LilliAnn! Stay tuned for another post with more pics of Lil.

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 Suzanne had the fabulous idea of making comment bubble chalkboard signs for the guests to write funny messages on!

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 Super cute button-themed bow and outfit from 2 Cute Bowtique!

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This party girl was ALL SMILES! I was a little worried because the party was at three and she hadn't napped all day, but she had so much fun opening her presents and she was a happy girl the entire party!

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And I cannot forget to mention the macaroons!!! In all of the "over-the-top" parties that we had researched, all of them had one thing in common...macaroons!!! And good luck finding macaroons in these parts! So what does Suzanne do? She orders them from Beverly Hills and has them overnighted the day before the party! The place we ordered them from was the same place that Tori Spelling gets the macaroons for her kids' birthday parties!

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Lil's party hat

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And LilliAnn's guests were just as cute as her party...here's little miss Aspyn!

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little miss Lyla

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Mr. Owen wasn't in "party mode!"

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Oliver Kids!

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We even had some Thunder fans at the party! Kari, Troy, and Logan say, "Thunder up!"

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It was hilarious watching her eat her cake...well, not actually watching her eat the cake, but rather play in the cake! She wasn't into taking a bite, but she loved giving me and her daddy bites. She wouldn't put her hands in it, but when my mom gave her a fork and a spoon, she dug right in!

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We had an outfit change to eat the cake. How adorable is this little lace number?

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Her smash cake was a strawberry cake with pink icing and ruffles!

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"Here, mama. Want a bite?"

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The party planners...Suzanne and her daughter Blair! I love these two girls!

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Giant jar of pink and white animal cookies

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There were buttons everywhere!

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Love all the details!

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The party was at my parents' house. We had pictures of LilliAnn all over the place...and the pink picture frames made them look extra fabulous!

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Party favor boxes filled with animal cookies

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The orange and strawberry crush added more bright colors to the table!

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Custom water bottle and punch labels that read, "LilliAnn is 1!"

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LilliAnn says, "Thank you for all of my presents!"

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Her future's so bright...she's gotta wear shades!!!

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Thanks to these two (as well as my Aunt Johnna, my mom & dad, Billy Sue Hatch, Madison Grinnell and her mother, and my wonderful husband), LilliAnn had a super sweet 1st birthday! Her party was perfect and more than I could have ever imagined! An extra special thank you to Suzanne Brown for working for weeks trying to get everything together and make every detail extra special. You mean the world to me and I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful, creative friend. Thank you for getting excited about all the "little things" and really "getting me." Love you Suzi!

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I can't believe my baby girl is a big one year old now! She's always acted so much older than her actual age, so I feel like her baby stages have all passed way too quickly! Although her newborn days are over, I'm looking forward to each new discovery and every new accomplishment...stay tuned for a post about LilliAnn's first year!