Olivia's First Birthday Party! - Clements Chronicles

We had Olivia’s first birthday party this weekend and it was a huge success, not only with her but for us as well. She was a gem through out the whole thing, but mostly because we put her down for a solid 2 hour nap before people arrived so she was nice and rested. Since she won’t remember this day, Myke and I wanted to take a lot of pictures and we couldn’t wait to do the smash cake.

When it came to planning the whole thing, I wanted to keep it as simple as I possibly could. We kept it just to family and since most people were traveling or had other plans, we had a very condensed version of the extended families and of course both set of grandparents. Grand total we had about 20 people, which was perfect! It wasn’t too overwhelming for her (or us) and everyone was able to mingle with everyone and had a great time.

When you are planning on as many people as we were, we knew were were going to need a lot of food. My aunt suggested that we do pulled pork sandwiches and since that is one of Myke’s specialties, we thought it would be perfect. We also had a spinach salad, as well as pasta and fruit salads. Myke made the pulled pork his labor of love. He marinated the meat for about 36 hours and then got up at 2am the day of the party and put it in the crock pot on low, so the meat was ready about 11 with the party starting at noon. I made and served the same punch that was served at the baby shower my dear friend and pastor threw for me when I was pregnant with Olivia. Simple and easy recipe that was found originally on Pinterest and I have to admit, it will most likely become a staple for most parties we throw now.

I decided very early on that I wanted to make Olivia’s smash cake. I wasn’t going to do anything too crazy since she wasn’t going to eat the whole thing after all. We decided on the classic combo (and Myke’s favorite) white cake with chocolate frosting. We bought a cake mix and frosting and did it DIY style. The day was a long day for both Myke and I, but we were so satisfied with it. Everything went off without a hitch and I truly believe that was because we kept it as simple as we could. There is nothing wrong with having a huge blowout party for your kids, that’s just not our style.