Sahar's Flower Garden First Birthday Party

Can't believe my little sugarplum turned 1! 

The party was in March and I'm JUST getting a chance to post about it. Better late than never right? Since she's a spring baby I wanted to incorporate that into the theme, in addition to finally being able to throw a girly party after having two boys! I felt what better way to be feminine while celebrating spring than a beautiful flower garden theme! 

I started the preps for this in January, because I knew my elaborate ideas would take a lot of time.  As usual, I tried to incorporate as much DIY as I could; with a homemade banner, cupcake toppers and multiple trips to Michael's. I also made all the backdrop paper flowers myself and if anyone is interested in tutorials, Youtube is the place to go! Send me a message and I can recommend the ones I found most useful.

I used my best planner friend, Pinterest, for cake table inspiration and I'm very happy with the result. I kept going back and forth if I should do all the work myself or hire a party planner. In the end I did use Bella Events who is located here in Tampa, Fl to set up all the decor for me. With a full time job and three kids I knew that I just wanted to hand that responsibility off to someone else. It was really wonderful having a Day of Coordinator to help everything run smoothly and I would definitely recommend it. Nearly all the decor  and desserts on the table were my own and the ideas for favor bags with a religious scripture for the magnet was mine as well. But having her execute it for me made a huge difference for my own peace of mind at the day of the party, when I had so much else to do. An added bonus is that she was wonderful to work with, which made it such an easy decision! The cake was done by a local baker Sonia from Sweeties Delights at a very reasonable price, it was true to the design I gave her and tasted delicious as well. 

We had a super cute flower fairy making station for the kids, but sadly I got no pictures of it! If you search Pinterest for fairy making you can find tons of great free printables. As you look through the pictures below I tried to include as many links as possible to where I got all the party decor. Hope this helps with your own party planning, for anything I missed feel free to reach out! 

Snapchat Filter via Etsy

FREE FLORAL ALPHABET BUNTING

Goodie bags and tablecover via Dollar Tree, Islamic Sign from Salaam Shop

Custom Magnets

First Birthday Poster ordered via Etsy, Flower photobooth frame made by me

macarons from Costco!

Cupcake toppers found here

Ikea lanterns and DIY vases

Customizable Snapchat filter, Free printable sign here

snapchat filter via Etsy

 

Tip: Have your balloon artist premake a bunch of balloons for kids to choose from to save time during the party, mine had to run to another event and was kind enough to bring about 20-25 along with her. I told her to choose the most popular shapes kids love and it worked!

Adam looking as legit as Mario can get

The following images were found from Google search and are not my own. I used them as part of table decor, favor tags and for sending out our Save the Date message. 

 

Full image here

The below coloring pages were found via Google Search and are not my own property.

Full image here

A week in NYC!

Back in the middle of April we took a very spontaneous and amazing trip to NYC all thanks to a work project suddenly assigned to my husband. Everything really worked out great! I was in my 2nd trimester so my energy level hadn't quite taken a nose dive yet, so Ali and I took advantage of this opportunity and joined him. We spent an entire week like tourists discovering the city I had lived near for SO many years but never took the chance to explore. Wajih left after his work ended, but Ali and I hung around at my mom's place for an extra week and got some much needed time with Nana, Nani and Unga (what Ali calls my little sister, a word he created all his own).

Weather wise mid April was nice to be out and about in the city. We wore jackets or layered on light sweaters and even had two days of beautiful 75 degrees and sunshine; perfect for a day at Central Park!

I had created a basic list of things I wanted to do with Ali so I had sort of a game plan for our trip while keeping in mind alternate options in case it rained. I also Googled reviews for some of the best parks and playgrounds for kids.

Places we went or hoped to go
Dylan's Candy Bar
FAO Schwarz
Times Square: Toys R Us, M&M's and Hershey's store
Central park: sailboats, Umpire rocks, playgrounds, hike in North Woods (12pm free tour Tuesday), zoo ($19 for both)
Metropolitan Museum of Art (Alice's Teacup nearby for lunch)
Thursday- pay as you wish at Children's Museum of Art 4-6pm
Washington Square Park - Greenwich (PB&J company nearby for lunch)
Pier 25 playground - Tribeca (whole foods nearby for lunch)
Brooklyn waterfront park pier 6 (dumbo park)
Hippo park - upper west side

Now I'll let the pictures do the talking about how great our trip was:

A beautiful shot of Tampa Bay as we took off, surprising my parents when we showed up at their door!

Oh Wawa how I miss thee!
 Closest one to us in FL is 20 mins away :(

So happy to be back home with my Jersey Girls, little impromptu family BBQ to enjoy the sunshine!

First night my parents joined us and we did the Times Sqr thing

Obligatory Time Sqr picture

Next morning outside Rockefeller Center

St Patrick's Cathedral

Easter display outside Rockefeller Center

playing with sailboats in Central Park

my favorite painting at the Met

So I'm officially obsessed with tea and scones.
A trip to NYC is no longer complete without Alice's Teacup!

Ali learned how to take pictures that day.
this one actually came out artsy!

I have never before had scones that tasted this good.
Every single one was just divine!

View from our room at the Hilton on 52nd St

This kid was in Toy Store heaven.

 

The next day was rainy so we did another toy store
We both loooved FAO Schwarz, you can easily spend hours here!

Dinner at an Italian restaurant near the theater district.
Really wasn't as good as it looked.

Molcajete Taqueria in Greenwich. Delishh!

I did not find riding the subway to be kid or stroller friendly! 

Gotta love NYC street art!

the most heavenly creme brulee I ever did eat!

Hubs took me out to a fancy dinner at Aquagrill in SoHo

Mango Mousse!

Selfie with subway! #totallydangerous

View outside the Waldorf 

This chandelier was in the women's bathroom!

I'm realizing I have a selfie problem

We totally sneaked around the hotel to check out the snazzy ballrooms

while my poor husband worked late, I sent him pictures like this

Second trip to Alice's, this time with my bestie Aisha!

We get off the subway and before I know it
 Ali runs into Mickey's arms like he's a long lost relative! #Disneykid

Beautiful displays all over Dylan's Candy Bar

 

Cookie Monstah milkshake!

Oh how I wish those giant swedish fish were real

Central Park playground fun

Ali makes a friend!

Our last day there I finally dragged the hubby to Alice's for yet another lunch of tea and scones!

Even though I've been to NYC many times in the past, I had never spent an entire week there walking around the towering buildings or navigating my way through the subway. Honestly, I loved every bit of it, there's just something so magnetic about this city it fills you with hope and potential just being around all that energy. My husband is not a city guy, he loves the country life but there's a part of me that has always wanted to experience city life. I was so thankful to have the opportunity to do that now. I was happy to find that there is so much you can do with young children too! Can't wait for Hubs to have another work assignment so we can do it all over again ;)