Charlotte's FIRST birthday

There are moments in life we want to make special.  Little details we want to remember.

As I posted previously, Charlotte recently celebrated her FIRST birthday!  And this birthday is one of those moments I wanted to make special...and I of course had many little details i wanted to remember.

Here's the first detail....the invitation.  I am no master of photoshop, so it may have taken me a couple hours days! to complete this particular invitation.  But, I will admit I am quite pleased with it.

There were little "bubbles" in the corners that listed the time/date/location and a special message:  "Charlotte's turning ONE!  And she wants you to join her for a birthday SAFARI!"

I made the invitations shortly after Charlotte celebrated 11 months.  Then I spent the month leading up to her big ONE making lots of other little details...(and with my part-time job and sister's wedding....this became a bit of a challenge!  But I did it...somehow...)

Since we went with a "safari" theme (because she was born in South Africa!), I decided our house was better suited as a Safari Lodge.  I know...it says it was "established October 4, 2010" and we weren't actually living there on that date...but that is the date of Charlotte's birth.  So it seemed fitting to establish her Safari Lodge on that date as well.

This next little accent I meant to blog about awhile ago...but never got around to it.  The yarn wreath.  With felt flowers.  I found a tutorial for the wreath at another blog spot and fell in love.  (Okay, maybe "love" is a little heavy...but it looked cute and easy to make....so I made it!)  Anyway, I really do like my wreath and I have already made a few others as gifts for people-who knows, maybe you will receive one?  So what makes this wreath suitable for Charlotte's Safari Lodge birthday party?  The sign!  I needed a creative way to display the Safrican way of saying "greetings..."...."SAWUBONA!!"

I forgot to take a photo of the next little detail.  I somehow got distracted by the cheesy corn Ben was cooking up in the kitchen.  But as guests entered/exited the "Lodge," there was a large wooden giraffe standing next to the "thank-you favor" table with "safari snacks" for the guests.  What were these "safari snacks" you ask?  Chocolate chip cookies.  Only the yummiest treat ever.  And certainly a must for safaris.  Here's the note I attached:

No cookies pictured because they were so delicious we devoured the leftovers.

Safari Lodges have many common areas for their guests.  And since many of Charlotte's Safari Lodge guests have never actually been to a safari lodge, I went ahead and labeled these areas...

Braii is the South African way of saying "barbeque."

And everyone needs to know where the next one is located...

Safricans do NOT refer to bathrooms as such.  If you need to go potty you either ask for the toilet, the loo or just squat/stand on the side of the road.  Or in the case of the gifted, off the side of your bicycle.  I did all of the above...except for the bicycle one but that's probably because I didn't have one in Safrica.

A safari lodge must: the "watering hole."...kitchen/dining area (I know, there's no photo of the sign...or the food).  So, to satisfy your curiosity....Ben smoked some pork and we served up pulled pork sandwiches, Ben's cheesy corn, fruits and veggies and I cooked up some espinaca.  MMM.

Here's the serving area, adorned with handmade beaded decorations from Safrica.

And because I know you spied it in the above photo...here's a closer look:

I made up this big photo board (about $10) because I  know we will use it all of the time post-birthday-party.  Yeah, it's a permanent fixture now in Charlotte's Safari Lodge.  Although we do need to take down some of the photos so we can slip cards and other stuff behind the ribbons...  That will be a difficult task.  I had a hard time eliminating ANY photos from this collage as you can see from the above photo!

I love to use pictures for decor.  I love pictures.  Below you'll see an old frame I spray-painted black and strung twine across the back....then I just used mini-clothes-pins to hang photos.  This is also a permanent fixture in Charlotte's Safari Lodge.  And it was free.

Do you need a tutorial for this?  I could do one, I suppose.  But seriously, it was so easy to do!

I couldn't resist the tissue paper pom-poms.  Such a fun splash of color.  And kids love to jump up and try to grab them.  

Remember Duke the Hippo who lived upon our dining table in Safrica?  We moved him from his new home above our fireplace to the dining table for Charlotte's party.  

And he has a little dung beetle behind him pushing his poo.  Fortunately it's not real poo and it's just made of sterling silver.  Come on guys, I may not always have the cleanest house, but we don't just have hippo dung sitting on our table.

Here's a close up of the pretty table cloth we bought in Safrica.  I bought it with this purpose in mind too.  Though we will use it for many other family dinners for years to come.

Some can be anxious about heading out to the next location: "the bush."  That's the area where the wild animals roam free.

So of course I had to create some wild animals to hang out in the bush with the rest of our "wild animals" (the kids!).  I initially thought I would just hang HUGE photos of animals I took while in Safrica, but I decided it would be more fun to have animals everyone could interact with.  And since it wasn't in our budget to bring the live lions, elephants, zebra, giraffe, rhino, hippo, kudu, leopards, etc...I opted for painted animals with face hole cut-outs. 

These were really quite simple and cheap to make.  I just freehand painted the animals (fortunately I have a wee-bit of an artistic ability!) on cheap ($5) wood from Home Depot with paint I had laying around the house (plus a couple paint samples from Home Depot...).  Total, I would say these cost around $20 to make.  And they will make appearances at future birthday parties.  Plus Charlotte likes them...so we can set them up in our basement for winter-time fun.

Here's Charlotte the Lion and Avery the Elephant.

And Emmaus the Elephant and Charlotte the Lion!  (I had envisioned everyone taking their photos with the animals, but it just didn't happen this year.  Maybe next year.)

 And I am guessing you noticed the little doo-dads hanging next to the "bush" sign.  Those are paper lanterns.  A bit time-consuming (if you make a TON like I did...) but super worth it!  And easy to store for years to come...  I chose to make the lanterns for Charlotte's safari lodge out of animal prints in bright colors.  And I hung them EVERYWHERE.

outside

inside...in every doorway and along some windows...

 The main reason one goes to a safari lodge is to see the wild animals in the bush.  Now I mentioned above that some are anxious (in a good way and in a scared way!) to do so.  Fortunately, all safari lodge's provide safety measures for their guests.  And Charlotte's Safari Lodge didn't disappoint.  Charlotte's guests were provided with luxurious vehicles to view the animals in the bush.

The "Safari vehicle" in front was scored for $30 at Target!  Mega-markdown from $120!  It worked out great because we needed a wagon safari vehicle with high-sides for Charlotte to ride in at my sister's wedding.  And Charlotte LOVES the thing.  The other safari vehicle was given to us by my grandparents, Charlotte's great-grandparents (who live in Kansas).

 When one grows tired of the bush (though I have NO IDEA how one could EVER tire of the bush!), the Safari Lodge is equipped with a lounge area.  Charlotte's Safari Lodge lounge was decked out.

I hung her month-by-month photos above the fireplace.  And I cut out her name from that brightly-colored-animal-print scrapbook paper.

This was a last-minute decor idea.  I'm glad I did it.

 And what's a lounge without some sweets?  There was NO SHORTAGE of cake for Charlotte's guests.  I think my Mom (the cake baker and decorator) must have been a little excited.  She baked NINE cakes for Charlotte's party.  9 cakes.  NINE CAKES!  Three chocolate-chocolate chip, THREE vanilla and THREE strawberry.  Yup.  That's nine cakes.  Cake anyone?  Cuz we got plenty.

But seriously mom, they look great!  And they taste even better!  Thanks for all of your hard work on Charlotte's first birthday cakeSSSSSSSSS!

 Unsure as to how messy Charlotte would be with her birthday cake, we moved the group out to the braii area.  Yes I painted the highchair especially for Charlotte's first birthday.  (Hey- we used it for her first birthday photo shoot too!  And we will loan it out for others to use as well as keep on hand for future children, should the Lord decide to bless us with more.)  And it only cost $10 BTW.  Notice:  Charlotte is provided with all three cake flavors.  We wanted to see which was her favorite.  She chose chocolate.  Daddy would say, "smart girl!"

Look at our dainty little eater!

I think she mostly enjoyed the singing.  And all of the people saying "Yayyy!"  

But she did get a little frosting on her sweet little face and fingers.  (If you're checking out her bib, I also threw that together last minute...the morning of the party....because I realized she might need a "protective layer" between her clothes and the cake.)

But seriously...who needs cake when the "wild animals" in the "bush" are so much more interesting...

 We capped off the party in the lounge.  Where Charlotte opened her (way too) many gifts.  And when I say opened, I mean, her friends opened the gifts while Charlotte tried to crawl off and play.

 

And finally:  Charlotte's outfit.  I did make that as well.  I actually made her TWO outfits.  Haha....the first top was on a white onesie, but I forgot to sew around the edges of the "I heart S.A." I ironed onto the front. So I redid it on a black long-sleeved top, thinking she can wear it again.  And the skirt is also my second attempt.  The first attempt was SUPER CUTE but I got lazy and used hot-glue to attach the tulle.  The glue made the skirt way-too stiff and funky looking, so I redid the skirt.  And you all know I love to make headbands.  If you love it and gotta have one (or more) for yourself...you can always hit me up for a custom order.

THANKS FOR VISITING CHARLOTTE'S SAFARI LODGE birthday party!