Bowdenisms: Fin (was) One!

Throwback Monday! (shhh...pretend that's a thing...)

I know Fin just turned two...In fact- we (finally) had her party yesterday. Poor thing was a little confused, as her actual birthday was over a week ago, but due to family being spread out- and summer schedules being a little tricky- she ended up with about five different celebrations over the course of a few weeks. Not a bad problem to have I'm sure, but it didn't exactly help her grasp the concept of a birth-day. Good thing is, she totally grasps the concept of eating cake and opening presents. :)

So since I'm still wrangling yard flamingos from yesterday's shindig (another very good problem to have, if you ask me!), I thought it would be fun to finally share her first birthday. Hop in your way back machine, and let's enjoy some Vintage Finley:

I'm all about a PDF invite. Saves money on postage, and allows me to change the date a million times when I can't get my act together...

Click through to full details and soooooo many pics:

For the theme, we went against the traditional 1st birthday grain (blocks, pastels and bears, oh my!) in favor of a black + white + floral vibe. (I was finishing up my quilt at the time, and was pretty obsessed with that mix of patterns. Spoiler alert for this year: still am.)

I also thought it would be fun to pull a P.Diddy (no, not shooting someone in a club) and force a dress code on all the guests. How chic (and bossy) is it to require everyone to wear black and white? And how chic (and diva) is it for the birthday girl to show up in full color floral? Very. And very.

But despite the strict dress code, the party itself was low key. We had snacks and drinks, some lawn games, a bubble station, and that was about it. One year olds have pretty simple tastes, after all, so we figured a day of fun in the sun didn't need too much planning.

There were, of course, presents, and Fin had fun tearing into those. (With a little help from mom and big sister...)

But we all know, the most important part of a first birthday, is the cake. Now, I will be the first to admit, that cake decorating is not my strong suit, but for some reason, it's become important to make cakes for my kids' parties. It's a sign of love...messy, A-for-effort, it's the thought that counts, love. But this time around, I learned my lesson, and went for a simple design I thought I could execute. I'm pretty terrible with frosting, but cake toppers...Oh that I can do. So I poured my effort into some handmade decor, and hoped that would distract if the rest of it went horribly wrong.

Actually though- these ended up being my most successful cakes yet, so I was proud to show them off. A "naked" layered cake for the crowd, and a little smash cake for our guest of honor.

Fin was all too happy to dig in...She didn't get wild really, but she enjoyed her first taste of sugar-topped-sugar nonetheless. And by the end she was up to her elbows in frosting, so we'll consider that a success.

Oh, and someone else was up for some cake too...

But no Bowdenisms fiesta would be complete without a photobooth. So we had a special spot for people to capture their essence (or just a ridiculous moment in time.) And it was a hit. I'll just embarrass my immediate crew here though...