Knox Lion Turns 1!

Hey everyone! Welcome to our first ‘BH Life’ blog! Yep - that spins me out cuz I never thought I'd start a blog. But there was just getting too much we wanted to share with you guys so thought this was the perfect time to start! If there’s ever anything you guys wanna know more about or see more of, just let us know! 

We had such a fun party celebrating our little Knoxie’s 1st Birthday Party! (Well it was almost a month after he turned 1- but who else finds it almost impossible to find a free weekend these days?!)

We had the best day with all of Knoxie’s friends and cousins, and his Granny & Granddad from Perth who flew in for a few days to help us celebrate! It rained (a lot) but that didn’t stop the big kids from jumping in the pool and enjoying the pool floats! It was such a special day and we loved making memories for our littlest man…the first of many! 

THE DECORATIONS

Now, to be honest - I didn't as much "choose" a theme as much as I just wanted heaps of colour, something fun that I could basically have any decoration and it would all work together (so in short, something easy!!) Think Mexican Fiesta crossed with Flamingo/Tropical style...both are always full of colour and there's really nothing you can't add to those 2 that wouldn't work! Colours, stripes, black and white (our fav)…anything!

We had a one-stop shop - Poppies for Grace! I pretty much went through their website and selected almost 1 of everything! Ha! They had everything from all of the balloons, confetti, cake toppers, party hats (so cool by the way, with little Pom-Poms on the top), party bags and party bag fillers (including the best tattoos of flamingos, fruit and cool animals!) + Sunnylife pool floats and the list goes on! I think the biggest star of the show was the giant gold letters spelling KNOX. It doesn't matter what party your planning- big or small- by adding giant foil letters, they stand out and add a ‘wow’ factor to the setup!

Since Poppies for Grace are in a different state to us- they sent a big box full of all of the party goodies (hello exciting mail day!!) and we just inflated them all the morning of the party! We hired a helium tank from Spotlight, and that filled SO. MANY. BALLOONS in seconds - I definitely recommend that option! Haha! Thanks to our amazing BH office manager Megan AKA Knoxie’s fav person, she came and helped me setup and was Queen of the balloon inflating!

I already had the Mexican blanket which I used as a tablecloth, and went to Stacks (discount store) for everything else- Plastic Plates, napkins, little flamingo toothpicks in bright colours, mini umbrellas and all of those kinds of things! They also have cool inflatable palm trees + parrots that were great just put around the place!

THE FOOD

Ok, I know some amazing mamas make the most extravagant food spreads for parties that are Pinterest worthy (you’re all my hero's!) however- I was a bit time poor in the days leading up- and didn't want to spend the whole party in the kitchen....sooooo meet my party fav best friend- mini Mexican Layered Dips! They look amazing, TASTE amazing and always leave people asking for more! I would usually make this as a big dip- but for parties (and yes, it’s my go to for every party- ha!) I make them in little cupcake cups on a plate with some corn chips so everyone can walk around and mingle without being stuck to the food table! 

Mini Mexican Layered Dip Recipe

Approx. 4-5 Ripe Avocado’s

1 Sachet of Taco Seasoning

1 jar of Tomato Salsa

1 can of Refried Beans

1 Tub of Sour Cream

1-2 tomatoes (to garnish)

Grated cheese (to garnish)

Fresh Spring onion (to garnish)

Mash avocado’s in a bowl, mix in taco seasoning. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, Combine Refried Beans + tomato salsa.

In little cupcake cups layer in a spoon of bean/salsa mix, next layer a spoon of avocado mix, and top layer a spoon of sour cream. Garnish each one with grated cheese, diced tomato & diced spring onion.
Serve on individual plates with corn chips on the side and Voila!  

They also look awesome when everyone's arriving and are an easy grab, and then I just brought out a fruit, dip, cheese + cracker platter, and hot food throughout the party- spring rolls, fetta + spinach triangles, sausage rolls and heaps of easy oven food- nothing glamorous, but yum and again, easy! We also had the cutest pineapple lolly cups…these were just fluro plastic shot glasses (from discount store) filled with pineapple lollies and an umbrella in the top! Added to the tropical-ness perfectly! 

THE CAKE

I loved it so much! Cuz it was simple, but looked amazing! My bestie's super incredible mama has made all of my boys cakes for every birthday- since Halen turned 1. So it was super spesh having her make this one ❤ Think triple layer chocolate mud- a white chocolate layer, a milk chocolate layer, a dark chocolate layer...YUM! The '1' cake topper and the amazing feathered Flamingo cake topper were both from Poppies for Grace (the '1' balloon came already made and beautifully & carefully boxed so I didn't have to do anything except put it straight in the cake - win!) I chose a simple but fun coloured cake as I knew the toppers I'd already chosen would match perfectly! The cactus candle was from Sunny Life and was cool addition!   

THE PHOTOS

Normally I'm behind the camera at my boy’s birthday parties snapping lots of pics (but trying to do the food, chat to everyone, plus take pics can get stressful!) but this time we got the amazingly talented Kimberly Lauren (Kimberly Lauren Photography) who was awesome! She came before the party and snapped pics, and then was there throughout the whole party capturing special moments as she saw them. The kids all loved her, and we have the best memories from such a fun day! I was so excited to see all the photos when we got them back- and was so happy with them all! 

Clean up was a bit cray cray (like anything when you host 40+ adults and kids on a rainy day in your house- ha!) and I could not WAIT to put my feet up that night…but it was all SO worth it. We had the best day with friends, Knoxie had a ball and loved opening his pressies and playing with the paper more than anything (isn’t that the most fun bit for every 1 year old!?)

And here’s my fav bit! Not only do we have awesome photo memories from the day to keep forever, we ALSO have awesome honeycomb balls and festive decorations that remained in perfect condition…so I’m going to use them to hang from the ceiling in the boys play room- can’t wait to show you how amazing it looks!

Maybe that could be our next blog post…a post with pics of the boys playroom?! Let me know what you think! 

Love you guys!

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Balloons + Decorations - Poppies For Grace
www.poppiesforgrace.com
Instagram: @poppiesforgrace

Photography - Kimberly Lauren Photography
e-mail: kimberlylaurenphotography@gmail.com  
Phone: 0422 420 097

'1' T-shirt worn by Knox - Whistle and Flute

www.whistleandfluteclothing.com

Instagram: @whistleandflute