A Strawberry Birthday …

We celebrated a milestone last week!

Our youngest granddaughter, aka “Strawberry Girl”, celebrated her first birthday!!

Delaney has loved strawberries since her tastebuds first touched food! She loves them fresh, frozen, freeze-dried and in flavors. When it came time to pick a first birthday theme, “Strawberries” rose quickly to the surface!

Celebrating with food is a common tradition. Having a Foodie, Dad and Mom made a “food theme” a no-brainer. Dad’s favorite hobby is cooking and Mom’s is sous chef. We knew Delaney would gain a multi-cultural palate early. At age 1, she has tasted many many cuisines and seems to like all of them. She does not prefer sugary things, although, I’m sure over time that will happen. Textures don’t seem to bother her either. She chomps down asparagus as easily as strawberries!

A Strawberry Party It Was!

If you’re wondering what does a “Strawberry Party” entail, I’ll fill you in!

When helping my daughter plan this big event, I thought strawberries might be a difficult theme. Turns out it wasn’t. Lots of people must host Strawberry parties. There were many pre-made choices for decor and party favors!

This was the first time I took part in making a balloon garland. I’ve shied away from them, thinking it was beyond my skill set. It wasn’t as bad I as thought, but it wasn’t easy either! Pumping up the balloons and threading them onto a wire were easy, but securing it in place, in the position we wanted proved the challenge. It took longer than we thought and caused some frustration. Those air-filled-latex-pockets have a mind of their own. Perhaps the threading takes some practice. We didn’t have time to diagnose what may have worked better. Set-Up was a beat-the-clock game.

Attenders gave it rave reviews. Like always, the creators notice the places that fell short of the vision. But, we were happy and satisfied and claimed victory. There was no time for perfectionism. It had two purposes. One give a substantial visual for the room, on theme. Two, look good in pictures! It did both … success!

Strawberries of all sorts were served: fresh, freeze-dried, chocolate-covered bouquets, Strawberry decorated cookies and Strawberries and cream cake. For the littles: Strawberry cheerios, fruit snacks, yogurt covered, lemonade, fruit ropes and candies.

Of course there was other food, but the Strawberry table was Large!

For the littles attending, we put together a Strawberry Carnival. Rental spaces have so many restrictions, we worked hard to come up with fun alternatives for Delaney’s friends. We could not use tape or command strips in the room or attach banners to anything! This proved pretty standard when Olivia was looking for a venue.

Given our age group was birth to ten-years-old, we came up with these ideas: a crawl tunnel (we put mats underneath), ring toss, a Strawberry toss game into a rack of buckets, Velcro ball targets fruit themed, a fishing pond in a pink blowup kiddie pool, hoppy balls (pink polka dots), strawberry bubble machine. For decor we set up three tables for parents to sit at with balloon centerpieces and we released helium balloons to the ceiling around the room with long ribbons so kids could reach them and we could clean up.

The kids seemed to have fun with all the stations. Playing with the balloons on the ceiling was a favorite for some. The kids made use of everything with minimal parental input. This location was wonderfully adequate there were two rooms next to each other. The larger room we set up with the food and most seating and Delaney’s large back drop. The other contained the Strawberry Carnival. Adult space did not restrict busy children.

I had the privilege of making the favors for Delaney’s young friends. My daughter knows my wheelhouse! I made tags on my Cricut and assembled a Strawberry basket to take home. In the baskets were: a Strawberry squish ball, strawberry bubbles, a strawberry slap bracelet, strawberry stickers, strawberry tattoo, Strawberry Shortcake bandaids, fruit lollipops and strawberry candies.

We had a blast celebrating the big #1 for Delaney. She is a social gal loving all the people, letting strangers (to her) hold and hug her, dancing to the Happy Birthday song, and interacting with her friends. We are so blessed to take part in the lives of our grandchildren!