Macy is ONE!

Well, it's official! Our little munchkin is one-whole-year old. We had an Asian-inspired birthday party for her on Sunday, and everything went great! I won't lie, there was a lot of prep and planning and Googling involved in creating this party. But the way I figured it, I'm probably not going to get many more chances to go all-out on a birthday (I'm going to have to go back to work eventually!), so why not!? 

This was my first attempt at cake design. Funfetti cake (out of the box) with homemade buttercream icing. I got my inspiration here and here. Freestyle writing on a cake is tough...at least with the tools I had it was. So I was not about to attempt a "Happy Birthday" in front of "Macy".

Cherry blossom cake

Since the cake wasn't that big, I also did some sushi cupcakes. Devil's food cake mix with coconut sour cream frosting, and of course some jelly belly "roe".

Sushi cupcakes

And here is the rest of the spread:

Fortune cookies dipped in melted white chocolate chips (with a little red food coloring)

And of course, what Asian-themed party is complete without some candy sushi!?

• Rice Krispies treats for the rice
• Green and blue fruit roll-ups & fruit-by-the-foot for the nori 
• Melted & molded Airheads for the nigiri atop the rice (and when I got tired of doing that, I used Swedish Fish)
• Gummy worms in the sushi rolls 

Ha ha, don't mind my brother in the background..

Rubber ducky fountain

Origami art

Cherry blossoms borrowed from my friend Greta

Origami/tattoo/sticker station

Per my request, my brother drew this Pin the Tail on the Dragon drawing and I cut out little tails for the kids to tape on. But then of course we didn't end up playing since the oldest kid in attendance was three.

Party favors

"Cherry blossoms"

And here is the guest of honor in her kimono

(Oh yes, I made the kimono too, out of an old shirt of mine)

The headband was ALSO made from an old t-shirt

This is where I stopped taking pictures, but eventually everything got devoured.

I didn't really get any messy cake pics, but she did eventually embrace the birthday cake and make a mess of herself and her kimono (it's washable, after all!)

What I did not get pictures of:

• The invitations (I'll see what I can do about getting one linked)
• Two flavors of homemade ice cream: Green tea & Coconut
• The drinks: Virgin mint mojitos (with optional devirginization) & Apple juice tea (apple juice mixed w/a little iced chamomile tea)
• The virtually indestructible chinese lantern pinata. I know Ramie got some great pictures of the pinata demolition, so I will post them eventually.

I have not yet sat down to determine a final head count of guests, but I'm guessing about 30. I knew there were going to be a lot of people, but I was counting on the weather to cooperate so that people could spread out and go outside. The weather did not really cooperate, but it turned out just fine. As always, Macy was a trooper and handled herself really well. Love that girl!