Dawson's 1st Birthday

Pin It now! I've posted a few of my ideas for Dawson's 1st birthday party in this blog so I decided now that it's over I should post pictures from the party. :-)

Dawson's birthday and party were on Sunday and his party turned out wonderful! It was so much fun to spend the day with family and friends. The only thing that was missing was daddy. But Dawson did get a build-a-bear from Dave for his birthday and when you push on the bear's hand you can hear Dave's voice. Dawson loved it. When he heard dada's voice he started looking around to see where it was coming from. :-( I didn't actually see him do that (I purposely didn't push the bear's hand because I knew I would cry if I heard it) but Dave's mom told me what Dawson did when he heard. (And I still cried) They played the bear for Dawson a few times and I guess Dawson started to hug the bear. (That also made me cry when I heard it) I know he misses Dave so much.

But lets talk about fun stuff! His party! I had it in the clubhouse of the apartments that I live in. And as I've mentioned before, it was puppy themed.

Here is the birthday boy!


And some presents:


Some guests and decorations:


I made some tortilla chips in the shape of dogs and dog bones, they were a huge hit! (I didn't think about taking pictures until half the food was gone. Oops!)


I made a queso dip for the chips and we also had lil smokies, a fruit tray and a veggie tray. So yummy!

My dad wanted to hold up the chips so we could get a better picture of them. *lol* Thanks Dad! :-)


Oh, I made cake pops, too. Those were also a big hit!


And the cakes! The main cake was in the shape of a "1" and I wrote Dawson's name down the middle and put paw prints all over. And then his smash cake was a puppy's face.


He LOVED when everybody sang happy birthday to him!


He also LOVED his cake. :-)



I had a lot of fun planning and preparing for his party but I'm glad I have another year before I have to do it again. :-)

Puppy Cake Pops

Pin It now! I found these puppy cake pops in Bakerella's blog a few months ago and I knew they would be perfect for Dawson's party!


Aren't they just so cute?! I made about 50 cake pops tonight and I had intended on making them all puppies, but it would have taken me FOREVER. I decided just to make the rest plain blue.


I made enough puppies so each family that comes to the party will get at least one puppy and then a few blue ones. :-)

Other posts related to Dawson's 1st birthday are here.

Puppy Party Picks

Pin It now! Are you guys sick of hearing about Dawson's birthday yet? Or maybe sick of puppies? I hope not! Today I was at the store picking up the party food...I decided to serve lil smokies, chips and queso and a fruit and vegetable tray. :-)

I had a really cute idea to go along with the lil smokies. Instead of having plain toothpicks sitting out, I spiced them up with some puppy stickers!


I made a bunch of them. Both sides have a puppy sticker...they didn't line up exactly, but oh well! I'm getting super excited about his birthday in case you haven't noticed. :-) I think I am pretty much finished with everything that I can be finished with in advanced. I'm going to have a lot of baking and decorating to do this weekend though!

Homemade Tortilla Chips

Pin It now! Dawson is going to turn 1 on Sunday! We are also having his party on Sunday so I have a lot to do this week! If you saw my Party Invitation post that you know that the theme of his party is puppies. Dawson absolutely LOVES dogs so it only seemed right to have a puppy theme!

I have these cookie cutters that are super cute. One is in the shape of a bone and the other is shaped like a dog. I'm serving lunch at his party and I am determined to use these cookie cutters somehow. The obvious answer would be to make cookies, I know. But we are already going to have cake, ice cream, a smash cake and cake pops...I think that is enough sweets for one party.

I love, love, LOVE making chips out of flour tortillas. (I made them for the first time a few months ago when I found this recipe at kevinandamanda.com) And any party that I have ever been to that has had some kind of queso dip has been a huge hit. And I have a really good (and simple) queso recipe. So I am going to use the cookie cutters to cut the tortillas so the chips are shaped like bones and dogs. So cute!

This is going to work out perfectly, too. I can cut the tortillas up a few days in advance (I'll probably finish cutting them out tonight) and I can make the chips an hour or two before the party. There is also going to be a fruit tray and either hot dogs or lil smokies...I haven't decided on that yet.

I did a practice run on the chips yesterday and it's a good thing that I did! I now know that I need to keep the heat on the stove a little lower and they do NOT stay good overnight, even in a vacuum sealed bag.

First off I started by using the cookie cutters to cut the tortillas:


That is not the best picture in the world! *lol* I was in a hurry to get this done while Dawson napped.

I thought this picture would turn out better than the first...


I was wrong!

I had a small skillet with about an inch of vegetable oil heating up (over medium heat) on the stove while I cut the tortillas. I used a small skillet this time because I was only making 6 chips, usually I use a larger one. It takes 5 or 10 minutes for the oil to be hot enough and then you put the tortillas in one at a time. (I usually cook 4 at a time but I only put 1 in this time because I was using a smaller pan)



I overcooked the first 2, so I put my camera away after that! It usually takes about 30 seconds before they need to be flipped over and cooked on the other side for a few more seconds. Then remove the chips (with tongs!) and put them on a plate lined with a paper towel and them sprinkle them with salt.

All done!

Again, this is not the best picture, but they turned out cute and they taste yummy as usual! Hopefully they are a hit at the party!

Party Invitation

Pin It now! Dawson's first birthday is in less than 3 weeks! I have been planning his party for awhile now and I am excited that it's finally almost here!

I just finished up the last of the invitations and they are all ready to be sent out! I wrote the poem that I wanted to use on the invitations a couple months ago and then I made a rough draft of the invitation about a month ago. It's taken me awhile to finally get them finished, but I did it!

Dawson LOVES dogs so we chose a puppy theme for his birthday. The invitation says:

Please join us for some TAIL-WAGGIN' fun
Dawson Nicholas is turning ONE!
A light lunch, cake and ice cream too
The party won't be complete if we're missing you!
So wipe your PAWS and COME! SIT! STAY!
It's going to be a DOGGONE great day!

I'm really happy with how they turned out. Simple but cute. :-)