Parker's first birthday was in October, but I'm just now making myself take a breath and get the post up...
Because it hit in the middle of my last semester of law school (and because I tried to make myself believe that he wouldn't actually remember it), I wanted to keep it small and simply. But, nothing I do ever stays small and simple for long. So, it quickly became a whole big "thing!" We had family coming in all the way from California and the guest list topped out at over 30. I was really nervous about whether Parker could even handle all of the excitement...
Serving food and cupcakes to 30 in the midst of being super broke and super overloaded at school really tested my commitment to all things natural. And, unfortunately, in the end the cheap processed foods may have won more than I would have liked.
The first issue was coming up with a way to decorate the cupcakes in a fun, bright way without using artificial food colorings. This was fail #1... I found these natural dyes on Amazon and in my local Whole Foods, but they were way out of my price range (maybe next year when I'm a lawyer, hah). So, I tried making my own.
I bought frozen spinach, purple cabbage and tumeric. I tried just simmering the spinach in a little bit of water for a long time and then straining it. This was completely pointless. Maybe I'll try it again with fresh spinach when I get the time. Next, I tried the tumeric. I soaked it in a mixture of vegetable oil and vinegar, hoping that one of the two would pull out some color. NOPE! I ended up with a slightly yellow-tinted salad dressing that smelled terrible. At that point, I gave up on the DIY dies and went with the icky artificial stuff (except for Parker's big smash cake - I used blueberries to make the frosting a blueish purple).
I did serve organic snack mix, cheerios, cheese crackers, PB&Js, and cheese sandwiches as snacks. It was awesome to hear from the guests over and over how unusually tasty the sandwiches were. I really enjoyed telling everyone it was because all of the ingredients were natural and organic!
The theme was "cupcake monsters," which made for a really fun party! I have so many DIY projects from the party that I can't wait to share, but that's another post. For now, here are some pictures from the party:
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