Hughes News

Henley is ONE YEAR OLD. I don't like it one bit.

BUT, I do love planning birthday parties! So it makes up for the fact that my little girl is growing up too fast.

I seriously have an obsession with planning birthday parties. So I started planning about 2 months ago (at least). Ha! I wanted to do an owl theme because that is Henley's room theme, and basically because I love them too!

(I benefited so much from people that put links online to make it easy for me to find stuff while I was planning, so I'm going to include links in case anybody ever needs ideas! And so you know I copied a lot of people! :) So this will be more detailed than anybody cares about, but this is for me to remember...)

I found these plates and napkins that were my inspiration for all the colors:

I found this template for the invitations, but tweaked it a bit so the wings covered the words...

...and then opened.

Here are all the invites. They're so cute!!

We have so much owl stuff that decorations were free!

(Blow this picture up to see a ridiculous awesome girly tutu made by Aunt Amanda on this precious little girl!)

The favors said, "It's been a hoot!"
Oh, for goodness sakes, I'm such a dork.

I love doing 12 months of pictures for a 1st birthday. So I gathered sticks in the backyard and hung a picture from each month of Henley's 1st year. I tried to include pictures of Henley with each person that was at the party, too. I love it so much I'm going to put it in her room!

We had an "owl-some" bookmark station for the kids to use their fingerprints to make owls. This book has an entire page for owl fingerprint ideas.

Henley's and Gavin's examples:

It was such a beautiful fall day that we moved outside to enjoy the weather!

Ryan the grill master:

It was hard coming up with a game for little ones to play. So Mom and I brainstormed.
She came up with an egg hunt...

(Side note--this owl is from Henley's baby shower when she was still in my belly thanks to Sharon and Bethany!)

...and I found these owl finger puppets to put inside the eggs:

The kids got to take home some finger puppets to go along with a poem I found here.
(Thanks, Kim!)

I think the kids enjoyed hunting for the owl eggs!

And one kid in particular enjoyed the eggs that had candy inside. When Gavin found an egg with an owl, he threw it down to moved on to the next one with candy.

The food was super fun and ridiculous. It all started with my Mom and me brainstorming what to serve.
Mom: "Isn't there a restaurant with an owl?"
Me: "Hooters?"
Both: "Chicken wings!"

Let the madness begin...

Wings: chicken drumsticks and wings

Feathers: Cotton Candy

Beaks: Candy Corn

Leaves: Kale Chips

Trees: broccoli and cauliflower

Acorns:

Branches: pretzel sticks and logs

Maybe my favorite for an owl themed party: Tootsie Roll Pops

And probably my second favorite: cheese mice

And as always, Aunt Amanda with her baking and cake decorating skills came through with an awesome smash cake for Henley and owl cupcakes for everybody:

Henley actually wasn't a huge fan of her cake!

Pretty disappointing compared to her very messy brother.

But she did love her birthday song! This is my family's version of "Happy Birthday"

I think I enjoyed Henley's presents as much as she did. We have so many boy things in this house that it's so fun to have girly things now!! Thanks everybody for your generosity to our little girl!

Henley's new owl backpack.
Elizabeth, I seriously may wear this myself! :)

What happens when the birthday girl only takes an hour nap on her party day? A very sleepy birthday girl! She was pretty out of it by present opening time:

But her new tiara and baby doll did the trick to wake her back up!

I think the adults enjoyed the presents as much as the kids did, too...

Rev and Henley still enjoying the eggs:

Lon and Sharon:

Gavin seems to enjoy Henley's new girly presents, too!

Thanks everybody for coming to celebrate with our sweet girl. When I was planning Henley's party, I kept adding people to the guest list, but then realized they were Gavin's friends, not Henley's! So I realized Henley only has 3 one-year-old friends that she plays with on a regular basis! :) But it was so nice to have a small laid-back party. It was a great day!

Oh, good ol' Lake Winnie!

I went here numerous times as a kid/teenager but haven't been since I was in High School! So when Gram and Papaw wanted to take Gavin, we of course wanted to go! It was so fun seeing it through the eyes of a 2 1/2-year-old little guy!

First thing he saw: the train!

Gavin's Chattanooga buddy Asher got to go with us which was GREAT because they rode rides together like big boys!

Henley didn't get to ride rides, but she enjoyed watching the boys and being held by some of her favorite people!

Gavin and I loved the Dumbo ride!

I think one of Gavin's favorite things was getting to eat yummy food that he never gets to eat at home!

The boys' favorite was the roller coaster. Gram rode it with them once:

(Love this picture!)

And then I got to ride. Ryan and Robert couldn't fit because their legs were too long!

If you blow this up, I'm pointing out to Ryan that Gavin is screaming like a little girl with his hands up in the air!! It was so cute!!!

Hands up!

This poor little one skipped her morning nap so she was out for the count after lunch!

Old Timey Cars. Need I say more?

There was a car that apparently didn't work anymore that was off to the side on the trail and Gavin kept telling me about it the rest of the day! "Car out of gas. It not working!"