Quinny Bee’s First “Bee” Day

Over the weekend, we celebrated Quinny’s First Birthday with family! We did a simple “bee” theme playing off of her nickname “Quinny Bee” (our little “Queen Bee”) and it may or may not give you a hint as to what she’ll be for Halloween! Okay, maybe not a hint. It’s pretty obvious!

For the background, I knew I wanted some sort of balloon garland. My friend, Nichole (Instagram @nichole_mallett), is a balloon garland slaying QUEEN and recently shared a great tip on her Instastories. She buys a balloon garland tape that comes with pre-cut holes to stick the balloons through. This leads to easy assembly in terms of getting the balloons on the garland and easy assembly in terms of getting it hung up on the wall. Genius! The greenery backdrop was purchased on Amazon. I love it because it adds so much more texture (literally and figuratively) versus staring at my wall behind the balloon garland.

To tie in the bee theme, I added little touches here and there; from the light yellows and golds, to the greenery, to the fresh flowers and even tiny bees on the cake.

I wasn’t able to get a picture of the whole spread before guests started to arrive, but in addition to the cake and chicken salad sandwiches we had a few charcuterie boards to cover the bases!

I’ve done a number of birthday parties for my girls over the years, but this was my first attempt at making one of their birthday cakes. My friend, Erika, is a talented baker and gave me some great tips! I went with a simple “naked” cake, as I have zero frosting skills! My goal for this first cake was just to get it level and to taste half decent! Because it was a basic cake in regards to the look, I decorated it with fresh flowers and little wooden bees to add some texture.

For table decor, I put out two mason jar vases with sunflowers, baby’s breath and honey stir sticks. The mason jar vases gave it that farm fresh feel and the honey stir sticks tied in the bee theme. We also had a jar of edible honey sticks for guests. The girls and I go to a local market store by our house and they always ask for these up at the cash register!

….And I obviously had to save the best picture for last! Wink! I can’t believe our Quinny Bee is already one. Tear! Nobody warned me that the years get exponentially faster with more kids! We were so grateful to be surrounded by family as we celebrated her first year on this earth. She loved the cake and all of the attention. And for a third babe, she’s definitely not deprived of the spotlight. She’s our rainbow babe—our testament of hope, of God’s timing, of second chances, of answered prayers. She’s the perfect third babe—the calm to our constant chaos, a lover of all things noise and commotion (the louder the better!) and the snuggliest little thing. She’s healed our hearts and brought more smiles to our faces than she’ll ever know! Happy Birthday, Quinny Bee!