Adaline’s 1st Birthday Party – Pink and Green Polka Dots and Cupcakes
Here are some photos of Adaline’s first birthday party that we had on Saturday August 7, 2010. The theme was polka dots and cupcakes to match her dress. The colors were pink, green, and white. Unfortunately I don’t have a great camera so the pictures aren’t as nice as I’d like. Hopefully the details show through despite my poor photography equipment!
The Birthday Girl!
I made the number one sign out of an artist’s canvas covered in a pillow case with tissue paper hot glued to it. I saw the link on Polka Dot Market’s Facebook Page. This DIY Tissue Number Sign was featured on www.prudentbaby.com!
(DIY Tissue Number Sign Mini-Tutorial)
I found the Bonnie Jean dress at Burlington Coat Factory when Adaline was only 3 months old. I thought it would be perfect as her first birthday dress, so I bought it right then!
This sign was made by a close friend of the family who also came to the party to help take photos and videos. The sign fit at the front of our house perfectly…and she didn’t even do it on purpose! Thanks Sara!
The front of our house on party day (Boo, car!)
The super cute Happy Birthday banner is from Polka Dot Market Coupled with the dress this banner gave me the inspiration for the whole party theme and color scheme.
Happy Birthday Banner from Polka Dot Market
There wasn’t enough room inside our house for all of the guests so we rented a tent for the backyard. Inside the tent we hung tulle and hung balloons upside down. We added white linens on the tables and chairs and tied tulle around the chairs.
All of the paper products were purchased at The Hobby Lobby. I got the green tumblers and “margarita” glasses at Wal-Mart back in April. Everything that I used for the Ribbon Topiaries was purchased at The Hobby Lobby. (Ribbon Topiary Video Tutorial)
I glued Adaline’s photos to paper plates and taped them around the doorway in hopes that it would look like polka dots (does it?) I hoped to do this around all of the doorways including the outside but I ran out of time.
I found the foam glitter letters at Michael’s. The white shelves holding Adaline’s photo display is usually in our upstairs bathroom. I used it to show pictures of her smashing cake, her 9 month photo, 6 month photo, 3 week photo, and one of the first photos of her right after she was born. The green tablecloth was from Wal-Mart. It’s actually a rectangle cloth on a square table that had to be strategically folded to fit properly. I certainly would never use a tablecloth right out of the package without steaming it first…nope, not me 😉
That’s the same number one sign from the first picture. I found the cupcake pedestals at The Hobby Lobby. The tiered cupcake/cake stand is from Save-on-crafts.com, we added some ribbon from The Hobby Lobby.
My mom made and decorated the main cake and all of the cupcakes. Although she’s been decorating with butter cream for 30 years, this was her first time using fondant. I think she did a great job! We got the idea for the cake from Wilton.com.
I decorated Adaline’s smash cake. This was my first time ever decorating a cake, you can see the gaps…whoops! My mom is great at cake decorating and always made fancy birthday cakes for us when we were kids. I’d like to do the same for my kids but since I have no idea what I’m doing I asked her to make the main cake and I made the smash cake. That is butter cream icing but the polka dots are fondant. I found the polka dot number one candle at a local party shop where I also got the cupcake wrappers. The wrappers were originally pink with white polka dots, but the chocolate cupcakes made they polka dots appear brown!
Adaline’s photo timeline August 2009 to August 2010
This photo timeline of Adaline was set up in our living room. Aside from the photo displays I didn’t decorate the living room because I couldn’t bring myself to put pink and lime green in our yellow and blue room. I thought it clashed too much…call me weird. I was going to make a blue and yellow happy birthday banner amongst other things but I never had the time to get around to it. There are 13 photos of Adaline displayed, one photo a month from August 2009 to August 2010. I got the photo frames at Target. They were in the dollar spot, but they were $2.50 for a pack of 3. The black “Adaline” letters are usually on a shelf in her bedroom, they’re from The Hobby Lobby.
Oh, yes ma’am, those are pink and green number one shaped ice cubes…how nice of you to notice! We had pink lemonade too, of course, but it was all gone before I had a chance to take this picture 😦
Below is Adaline digging into her smash cake. It was a banana flavored cake tinted pink (even though it looks red in the pictures).
Happy Family
Our happy family (with a very tired baby) at the “photo booth” after a long and exhausting, but totally awesome party!
Adaline and Mommy
The DIY Tissue Number Sign that I made for Adaline’s 1st Birthday was featured on www.prudentbaby.com!
Related Posts
BIRTHDAY TUTORIALS
*DIY No Sew Party Hat Tutorial
*Ribbon Topiary Video Tutorial (Centerpiece)
*Tissue Number Birthday Sign (Mini-Tutorial)
BIRTHDAY PARTIES
*Birthday Girl…2 years old: Photos of Adaline at her birthday party
*Ladybug Picnic: 2nd Birthday
*Ham and Man Party: 30th Birthday
*Celebrating 30 years in 30 days! All of my birthdays from 1980-2009
BIRTHDAY TRADITIONS
*Birthday Traditions: Personalized Birthday CD
*Birthday Traditions: Knife and Cake Server
*Birthday Traditions: Professional Photos
*Birthday Traditions: Photo Puzzle
*Happy 2nd Birthday, Adaline!
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Posted on August 17, 2010, in Adaline, Birthdays, Parties and tagged Birthday Traditions, first birthday, girly, Parties, photos, pink and green, Polka Dots, topiaries. Bookmark the permalink. 44 Comments.
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Fun and Dysfunction 
LOVE those ribbon topiaries!
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Yay, my first ever comment! Thanks so much, Brittany! I thought they were darling when I saw the idea on PolkaDotBirthday.com and said to my mom “We can make those, right?”. I’m not crafty at all, but I found them pretty easy to make. They ended up costing about $20 each. Again, thanks so much for your comment! I’m going to go check out your blog right now!
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that sure looked like a fun party!
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It sure was Cool Daddy 😉 Love ya!
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AWESOME PICTURES, Jenny!!! She is so very cute. Matt even muted the Steeler game to listen to every thing you wrote for each of the pictures. Keep us in mind any time you need “friends” =) Love you!
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Haha, thanks Sissy! Thank you for all of the photos and videos that you took, too 🙂 Love you!
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You are really amazing. Martha Stewart better watch out.What a birthday party.Should have been in a magazine. Great photos too.
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Thank you, Shannon! I don’t think I could run with Martha yet, but I certainly appreciate the compliment 🙂
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WOW!!! Now just remember you have to TOP it EACH YEAR!! HAHAH ! Good job! It was a Purty Party!!
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Thanks, Shannon! I’m already planning her 2nd birthday just to get ahead of the game! I have plenty ideas for topping it, but I’m not sure the old bank account can take it for too much longer 😉 Time to get more thrifty and creative!
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Wow! I LOVE it!!!! Sooo cute! I love the colors and the cakes-oh my! And the pictures of her eating the cake—too cute! And I love that you decorated with pictures of her and made such a beautiful formal affair in your backyard!! So special!
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Thank you, Theresa! I love those colors too. My mom is an awesome cake decorator, I hope that I can follow in her footsteps someday! I had way more photos that I wanted to put up and just not enough time, but I think the displays were nice anyway. Our yard is such a mess we definitely needed to pretty it up. Thank you so much for your kind comments 🙂
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WOW!!!
words. where are my words?!
oh! the CAKE!!! that was a masterpiece – please tell your mom i said so, my sister’s godmother [who made all our cakes, till i was 12 or 13] was a professional, and that looks at LEAST as good as anything she ever got awards for! [one that she got an award for – my youngest sister has a BDay that sometimes falls on Thanksgiving. Terry made a chocolate TURKEY cake! it looked AMAZING – my middle younger sister tore a leg off, and ate it like a turkey leg, my oldest younger sister was impressed with the fact that it did, indeed, have “white meat” – the breast area was white cake lol. my youngest sister was, i think, 3, and she really thought it was turkey and cried because she DIDN’TGETACAKE!!! until middle younger sister pulled the leg. it was, all around, pretty awesome. 🙂 but that cupcake cake is better!] mahap your mother should try for awards! it’s so CUTE! the whole THING is cute!
i’ve never heard of a “smash cake”, but it makes oodles of sense. and it was adorable as well 🙂
when she turns 13, this is what i did for my niece: tie-dyed cake [well, it’s a RAINBOW cake, but she saw it and declared it “rainbow”] now, i am ANTI-CRAFTY – i’m just horrible at things like that. but this, i could do.
RAINBOW CAKE:
basic white cake mix [box, your own, doesn’t matter, except it’s WHITE! NOT yellow. WHITE]
6 gel food colorings [i suppose other kinds will also work, but in my experience, the gel ones are the only ones with zero taste to them]
divide the batter into 6 equal portions. red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple/violet/indigo food coloring, 1 color to bowl [of course. sorry. my niece tried to make her own by putting ALL the colors into ALL the batter…]
to make it stay rainbow-y – it’s a 2 layer cake. in one pan, pour half the red in the middle of the pan. let settle a minute or three, then in the MIDDLE of the red, put half the orange batter. repeat down the rainbow. red-in middle of red, orange-in middle of orange, yellow-in middle of yellow, green-in middle of green, blue-purple. work in reverse in the second pan [purple-blue-green-yellow-orange-red]
it’s REALLY easy, i promise – if *I*, the anti-crafty one [craft supplies run from me! Hobby Lobby pretends to be closed at 2pm on a wenesday!] can do you, i am POSITIVE you can. and hey – when Adaline is 6 or 7 and she’s in her ponies-and-rainbows stage… 😀
i used plain white frosting – the case was a SURPRISE. niece did NOT know that it was rainbow, and was VERY pleased with her surprise – but for a younger girl… i dunno. anything else i’d try would fall apart [seriously – i tried to put “Happy BDay Phoenix” and what it ended up being, once it was transported,, was something like “Hipoy BByy Phoooo\” she laughed and laughed and laughed at that 🙂 ] i’m sure you can come up with something AMAZING, thought.
PS: THAT WEDDING DRESS AGAIN!
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Thank you 🙂 My mom has been decorating cakes (with buttercream) for 30 years now, but she’d never worked in fondant before, so she wasn’t too thrilled with how it looked. I thought it looked great too, especially for it being her first time! She’s pretty much told me that she’s done with the cake decorating because as she’s getting older it’s too much on her back and her hands cramp up using the icing bag (or whatever it’s called), so I don’t think that she’ll be entering any cake contests.
Turkey cake: That cakes sounds awesome! I love the added touch of having different colored cake for the white and dark meat…tee-hee! I’d be pretty disappointed too if someone gave me a giant turkey for my birthday instead of cake, but a giant turkey cake is even better!
Yeah, nobody did “smash cakes” when I was little. The kid just stuck their hands in the cake everyone else was going to eat (ew!). They’re pretty popular now, though, so that the little ones can dig right in and no one has to eat the “hand-me-down” cake.
Rainbow cake: That rainbow cake sounds awesome and like so much fun! I’d love to give that a try sometime. I’m certain that some sort of rainbow theme is in Adaline’s future. I’m dying to do a “Wizard of Oz” theme when she’s a little older and this would make a great “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” cake! It would also be fun to make for St. Patrick’s Day since the rainbow is where leprechauns keep their pot of gold 😉
I cracked up when you said that “crafts run from” you! So funny! I know what you mean, though, because this party was the “craftiest” thing I’ve ever done (and even still I just bought a lot of the stuff instead of making it myself!). I actually really hate doing crafts, but I really want my daughter’s birthdays to be special. We tried for almost 5 years to conceive her and I feel like her birth should really be celebrated because we’re just so happy to have her 🙂 So, I made a big deal out of her birthday and, yeah, I started trying to make some crafts so that the day would be special. I LOVE the Hobby Lobby, but the only one that we have is an hour away. It’s probably a good thing otherwise I’d probably spend a lot more money there than I should!
Hipoy BByy Phoooo: Again, I cracked up at this…too funny! I’m sure that your niece will never forget that cake. Sometimes it’s things like that, that aren’t perfect, that give you the fondest and funniest memories! Plus, in my opinion, anything that can make you laugh is ten times better than something that makes you go “Aww, how cute!”.
Wedding Dress: Thank you! We had to drive 3 hours away (to Johnstown) to find a dress like that. I really wanted a “royal” wedding and I sure got one 🙂 I’m going to be doing a post with more photos of the wedding sometime around June (for our anniversary).
Denelian, thank you again so much for stopping by my blog and leaving such thoughtful comments. I really do appreciate it! In fact, if you happen to have any photos of the cakes that you mentioned (the turkey and rainbow cake and even the “Hipoy BByy Phooo” cake), I’d love to feature them on my blog if you don’t mind. I think my readers would really enjoy the photos along with your great stories about the cakes! It would be great if I could feature the rainbow one around the beginning of March for St. Patrick’s Day and maybe we can save the turkey one for a post around Thanksgiving.
Let me know if you have any photos and would be willing to share them and your stories on my blog.
Thanks again!
Jenn
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Oh my goodness. You are the best party planner ever! seriously! WOW! I love all of the details you thought of. The ice cubes! And the time line is brilliant. What a good idea.
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Thank you! I’m already planning next year’s party…so we’ll see how that goes. I’m going to save those frames to do a photo time line every year…I just love looking at that beautiful little girl! And I thought the ice cubes were too cute! My darling grandmother spent a whole day filling up the ice cube trays for me because I was so busy 🙂
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I am planning my daughter’s first birthday & came across this block. I LOVE how you decorated! I am wondering how you made the tissue paper number 1 sign, it’s sooo cute!
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Thanks, Jenn! The party was a lot of work, but I loved it. I’m already planning her 2nd birthday (I’m thinking Lady Bug theme).
I found the tutorial for the tissue paper sign here: http://www.prudentbaby.com
But basically what I did was:
1. I bought an artist’s canvas from The Hobby Lobby
2. I bought a pillow/case and sheet set from Target
(I used the flat sheet as the photo backdrop you see in our family photo.)
3. I cut one of the pillowcases and stapled it to the canvas
4. I cut tissue paper flowers. Details found here
(Mine looked awful at first…took me awhile to get the hang of it.
5. I used chalk to make an outline of the #1 on the pillow case
6. I twisted the bottoms of the tissue paper flowers and hot glued them to the pillow case inside the chalk outline.
7. All done!
Like I said the original tutorial that I found and used was http://www.prudentbaby.com, they give details and show pictures of how to make it.
Good luck!
(P.S. I’d love to see photos of the party after it’s all over! You can reach me here on the blog or email me at coolfamilyblog (at) yahoo.com)
Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Jenn a.k.a. “Cool Mama”
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o Thanks! I am practicing the flowers, it might take a while! Good thing i still have 2 months 🙂
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Tell me about it! It looks so easy, but it’s hard to get them right. Mine looked like weird squatty little gingerbread men, at first. I think I was doing it for about an hour before they started looking decent!
You can use the “bad” ones too, though. As long as they have a few curves, you can’t tell so much once they’re glued on 😉
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Did you buy those cupcakes or make them? And how did you decorate the big cupcake, do you just have piping bag & all the tips?
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Hi Jen!
Sorry it took me so long to respond, it’s been a little busy around here lately!
My mom made and decorated the cupcakes.
The big cupcake that was used as the smash cake was made from a Wilton’s pan that I got at The Hobby Lobby (they also have them at Wal-mart). My mom has been decorating cakes for years and she did already have the piping bag and all of the tips. I’m going to have her take a look at the photos again and see if she can remember/figure out which tips she used for the smash cake and the cupcakes.
The stackable cupcakes were all covered in fondant and we got the fondant and all of the decorating supplies at the Hobby Lobby (I think they sell the kits at Wal-Mart and Michael’s too).
I’ll get back to you if my mom can figure out which tips she used.
Thanks for stopping back 🙂
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That cake is spectacular! FYI – I just found out that our public library has hundreds of cake pans and candy molds available for check-out. They said a lot of libraries do that. I thought it was a great idea – save the $20 of buying the cake pan in a shape for one use.
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I LOOOOOVVVEEE the number one ice. I’m planning on doing this for my daughters first birthday. Thank you for the idea. I’m all about the little details…..fabulous! But, how did you tint the ice? Food coloring? Wouldn’t it turn your drink pink or green? Any help would be appreciated because my color scheme is also pink and green. 🙂
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Hi Sarah!
My Grandma made all the ice for me and I’m pretty sure that she just used food coloring. Yes, it does tint light colored drinks (like lemonade)…the green was the worst! But darker drinks like iced tea or cola will probably be fine.
You could actually just freeze colored flavored drinks such as Kool-Aid, pink lemonade, limeade, and/or juices. I also offered plain ice just in case people weren’t crazy about the colored ice.
This year my daughter’s theme is going to be a Ladybug Picnic and I got #2 ice cube trays. I’m planning on filling them with cranberry juice and blueberries so when they freeze they’re red with “black” polka dots 🙂 Hopefully it works out as planned.
Let me know if you have any other questions and I’d love to see pictures of your completed party when it’s all over! 🙂
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That is very helpful…THANK YOU! Good tips too by the way. You and I seem to think alike. I too, want to do a ladybug birthday for her 2nd (I’m possibly thinking bumblebee for the 3rd but that may change). I love the idea about freezing the blueberries in the ice. Very creative!
You’re too sweet….I will def have to send you some pics. It’s always fun getting ideas. I wanted to this for a living but got a federal job and it would be hard to make me leave the benefits…lol So, I will just live out my dream through her birthdays.:)
Ive thought about doing a blog just because I’ve seen so many and gotten some great ideas. I found you on Creative Party Place. How did you start your blog? You have been so nice and helpful. Thank you!!!
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Thanks, Sarah! I’ll send you an email about the blog. It’s a little intimidating at first, but overall it’s pretty easy!
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THAT WAS S NICE AND FAB BIRTHDAY I WISH THAT MY BABY GIRL*S BDAY LIKE THAT…
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Thanks, Cherry 🙂
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I love your blog. I have a one year old coming up too. I just ordered the 1 I’ve cube trays but I only got one and now know u should have ordered more. Did you get yours locally or did you order them online, do you mind saying where? I might have to order another one or I’ll be making ice cubes in my sleep!!
Thanks!
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Hey Kelly! Thanks so much for all the compliments 🙂
I ordered my ice cube tray from amazon.com…the link should be included in the post…but here it is again: Silicone Single Number Ice / Bake Tray Number 1
I actually only ordered one. Since I was so busy with my one year old at the time and also making centerpieces, etc. my Grandma volunteered to make the ice cubes for me. She started weeks in advance and put the finished cubes in ziplock bags. Poor dear just filled ice cube trays all day long for days!
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Super cute — Great attention to detail! The photo timeline is a fantastic idea! My son just turned one also 🙂
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Thanks, Julie! I’ve seen so many cute and creative photo timeline online…but sticking them in cheap frames was by far the easiest and quickest!
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what kind of food dye did you use to do the ice cubes and how much to get it that color??
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My mother actually dyed the water for the ice cubes. I’m not sure how much she used, but she actually used cake decorating dyes. You can also try food coloring, Kool-Aid, pink lemonade, etc.
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I am throwing a Birthday Party for my baby sister and she was born rite before st. patricks day and our colors we are using is pink and green also. I would love to know how to make those ice cubes they are precious (: Can you please tell me how you made them ?
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I used number 1 silicone ice cube trays that I bought on Amazon.com to create the #1 shape. The dye was cake decorating dye. You can also try food coloring, Kool-Aid, pink lemonade, etc.
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Oh my gosh this is so exciting! I was searching on the internet for 1st birthday decorations (paying careful attention to the pink and green images because those are the colors I am going with) for my daughter’s Adaline’s 1st birthday on August 17th 2012 and I come across this site! I can’t believe your daughter’s name is Adaline and that it is spelled exactly as I have spelled my daughter’s name and not the Adeline way. Also, their birthdays are so close and I am going with the same green and pink cupcake theme!! Thank you so much for this post and I look forward to celebrating a 1st brithday in a couple of months 🙂
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Gina, that’s so exciting! That’s so crazy that the girls have the same name, same first birthday theme, and their birthdays are so close (although years apart).
I actually wrote two posts about how Adaline got her name and why I spell it “wrong”. Now I’m curious as to why you went with the alternate spelling as well.
I’m so glad this post was helpful to you. I’d absolutely LOVE it if you could send me photos of the party afterwards and I’d feature it here on the blog (with your permission, of course). It’d be kinda neat to have 2 different Adaline 1st Birthday Pink and Green Cupcake parties on here!
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My husband’s brother Adam passed away 11 years ago and we had decided that if we had a little girl her middle name would be Mada (Adam spelled backwards). So, when we decided on the first name Adaline (my husband was not a fan of any of the newer names that I had put on the list) I quickly planned to spell it “Ada” because Adam begins with “Ada”. So that is why we spelled it “wrong.” I am also picky about the way that people pronounce names so I assumed that this way would be without a doubt hardest to mispronounce. And that is why her name is Adaline Mada.
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Also, I will be sure to send pictures of her 1st birthday to you! It will be fun to share!
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Awesome! Thanks so much for posting this…I am going to attempt. Wish me luck 🙂
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I love everything you’ve done I’m doing the topiarys in may for my daughters baptism and 1st birthday it will all be the same day I’m doing a john deere theme? How do you get a pink lemonade? I also would love to do the number 1 ice cubes in green and pink thats the colors of her theme please let me know I appreciate your amazing work and ideas
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Hi Vanessa!
If you haven’t seen it already is here the tutorial on how to make the topiaries: https://coolestfamilyontheblock.com/2011/08/01/ribbon-topiary-video-tutorial/
You can buy pink lemonade from the store. We probably used Countrytime. It comes in powder form or frozen.
I used number 1 silicone ice cube trays from Amazon.com to create the #1 shaped ice cubes (there is a link in the post above). We colored the water with cake decorating dye before freezing.
Please read all of the comments and my replies above for more details about the ice cubes.
Hope this helps, good luck with your party 🙂
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