It seems fitting that the first Petite Lemon in Real Life post of 2015 is about a 1st birthday party. As a follow up to last year’s Design Dilemma post (here), we have the details of Grayson’s star-themed pink, silver, and white party.
Tell us about Grayson’s party outfit:
I’m a big cupcake fan, so I fell in love with the new Cupcake Cheer 1st birthday shirts and asked to have her tee’s colors customized so they would match the party’s color scheme, which was inspired by her personalized growth chart. Of course a pink tutu was the perfect addition, as well as a sparkly pink party hat from Little Blue Olive.
(Grayson’s party outfit and her Shooting Star personalized growth chart which inspired the party’s colors and theme.)
(Grayson modeling her Cupcake Cheer birthday tee)
How did you incorporate the colors and theme into the party’s décor?
I found the coolest customizable party banner at Party City that happened to be pink, gray, and silver with stars that actually let me spell out “Grayson’s 1st birthday.” I’ve since hung the “Grayson” part of the banner in her bedroom and I will be able to use the banner again for her future birthday parties. I added some silver stars to the wall and wrapped a silver star garland around the cake plate. The rest of the tableware was pink. For the party favors, I placed chocolate covered, star-shaped cookies into a cup personalized with each guest’s name along with straws filled with pink strawberry milk dots, all wrapped up in a clear favor bag decorated with stars.
Sounds nice. Did the party go off without a hitch?
No, this is real life after all! I tried to have as much done as I could the night before the party since it started at 10:30am and I didn’t want to be stressed out. You know what they say about the best laid plans – ha! I had visions of a gorgeous cake covered in ombre pink frosting roses. My mom made the roses, which were so pretty and looked great covering the entire 3-layer cake I baked – for about 5 minutes. Then they started melting and sliding off the cake. I went to put it in the freezer to firm everything up and the whole cake slipped and fell on the ground! Totally ruined and it was 10pm.
The next day I had to run to the grocery store to get Grayson a cake and since it was the Sunday before Christmas, every cake in the bakery was red and green with a holiday theme. Except one cute little white cake with colorful confetti sprinkles. It ended up being delicious, was the perfect size, and looked adorable next to the cupcakes I had made. Phew!
What lessons did you learn?
Keep it simple!! The easiest menu items, like the fruit tray, store bought macarons, and the powder sugar dusted cookies made with puff pastry and a star shaped cookie cutter, were also the most popular. And my 3.5 year old son used them as decorations for his cupcake too!
Thanks for sharing, and for including one of our 1st birthday shirts in Grayson’s celebration!
Have any of our personalized baby gifts been a part of your little one’s life events? Whether it’s personalized onesies for a baby shower gift, 1st birthday shirts for a party outfit, or personalized growth chartsto mark a milestone, we want to hear about it. Please email us at buzz @ petitelemon dot com and your story may be our next Petite Lemon in Real Life feature.
Design Dilemma: Grayson's First Birthday Party
With a birthday at the holidays, it’s really important to make sure baby’s celebration is all about them, not the holiday they share it with. And when the party takes place in a house that’s already been decorated for Christmas, making the party décor feel special is imperative. That’s the dilemma our blog contributor Noelle is facing for her baby girl Grayson’s first birthday party next week.
Like Grayson’s nursery, the party’s color scheme is pink and white with silver stars. Earlier this year she wrote a post on big sister shirts and welcome cakes (here) and was inspired by the pink ombre rose cake, which is fitting since Grayson’s middle name is Rose. Noelle has convinced her mom to make one for the party and plans to serve it on her favorite vintage square cut crystal cake stand.
She has more party and décor decisions to make though, and because we always get such great feedback from our dear blog readers on our line of personalized baby gifts, we thought we would ask for your help and have you vote on a couple of options Noelle is considering.
Of course, Grayson will be wearing one of our 1st birthday shirts on her big day and Noelle is torn between these two. (Shown: 1st Cupcake and Birthday Girl 1st birthday shirts)
Noelle fell in love with the birthday hats and crowns from Little Blue Olive when we did a giveaway with them earlier this year. Which of these two glittery hats should she choose?
To piñata or not to piñata? (Party City)
For the dessert table, should she go with a Hot Pink or Light Pink Tablecloth and what about adding a clear silver star tablecloth overlay? (Oriental Trading Company)
Please let us know your feedback in the Comments section, we’d love to hear your thoughts. And we’ll be sure to do a follow up with pictures from Grayson’s first birthday party.
Happy 1st Birthday June!
As our fabulous Artistic Director, Hillary creates many of the designs in our line of personalized baby gifts, from big sister shirts and big brother shirts to 1st birthday shirts and décor. Her adorable daughters, Lily and June, offer lots of inspiration and are important members of the Petite Lemon family. So we thought we’d take a moment to wish June a very, very Happy 1st Birthday.
Happy birthday wishes to you June! We’ve seen you go from wearing our personalized onesies to modeling other tees in our line of personalized baby gifts and we know you’ll continue to be one of our most favorite models.
(Shown: Striped Number, Watercolor Fun, So Cute, Play Party Hat 1st birthday shirts)
Which of these Hillary designed 1st birthday shirts do you think June should wear for her party?
Family Birthday Movie Night
The family that celebrates together, stays together! Sounds fun too, right? If you have family members that share a birthday or have birthdays close together, why not throw a combined party that’s fun for everyone. A movie night – indoors or out – totally fits the bill!
We saw this backyard movie night party with a monogrammed “concession stand” on Project Nursery (details here) and thought it would be so sweet if all the kiddos dressed in coordinating personalized onesies, 1st birthday shirts, big sister shirts, and/or big brother shirts to show family pride. (Shown: Birthday Girl and Birthday Boy 1st Birthday Shirts; Modern Monogram and Classic Monogram personalized onesies; Playful Doodles Big Sister Tshirt and Big Brother T shirt).
For an indoor movie night party, we love this classic movie theater theme we found on Kara’s Party Ideas (details here). Choose personalized onesies, 1st birthday shirts, big sister shirts, and/or big brother shirts that complement the color scheme or movie genre, like superheroes for example. (Shown: Super Big Brother T shirt and Big Sister Tshirt; Superhero Birthday and Happy to Be 1st Birthday Shirts; Playful Hello and Chic Color personalized onesies).
Five great movies that both kids and parents love include Up, Mary Poppins, The Lion King, The Incredibles, and The Princess Bride.
Personalized Baby Gifts Giveaway with One Happy Mama & The Banner Shoppe
Our fab Brand Enthusiast Kristina of One Happy Mama recently celebrated her son Luke’s first birthday and we love the fact he wore one of our 1st birthday shirts to mark the big occasion! You know we can never get enough of seeing our personalized baby gifts on our customers’ kiddos, so we had to share in our excitement by partnering up with Kristina and The Banner Shoppe to do a super fun giveaway.
The prizes? A $50 gift card to Petite Lemon good for any of our personalized baby gifts, big sister shirts, big brother shirts, 1st birthday shirts, etc. and a $15 store credit to The Banner Shoppe.
Want to enter? Follow these steps:
– follow @Petite_Lemon, @Imonehappymama and @thebannershoppe on Instagram
– regram Luke’s birthday pic (how cute is he!?)
– use hashtag #lukeisone
And don’t forget to let us know if your account is private.
This contest ends Sunday, 8/17 and the winner of $50 worth of Petite Lemon personalized baby gifts and $15 to The Banner Shoppe will be announced on 8/18. Good luck!
August Inspired Personalized Baby Gifts
If you’re buying personalized baby gifts for August newborns or birthday gifts for toddlers born in this month, we have a few fab ideas inspired by the eighth month of the year.
The August birthstone is Peridot, a gemstone with shades that run the gamut from yellowish green to lime green. Personalized baby gifts in these shades are very timely and work just as well for girls as they do for boys. (Shown: Perfect Pennant in Chartreuse and On the Go in Sky Blue/Lime personalized growth charts; Baby Builder in Green and Modern Name in Pink & Green personalized onesies; Birthday Girl and Birthday Boy 1st birthday shirts)
Leo is the astrological sign August babies are born under and they’re known to love the spotlight and have a kind, generous heart. Gifts with a lion or (lion) heart design are sure to please little Leo cubs! (Shown: Zoo Friends and Doodle It Up personalized growth charts and coordinating alphabet posters; Happy Hearts in Pink/Green and Blue/Green personalized onesies)
We hope these personalized baby gifts offered lots of inspiration for upcoming baby showers, birthdays, etc.
1st Birthday Tees — Celebrating with Ever Clever Mom
Last week we wrote about big milestones in wee ones’ lives and how thrilled we are when our personalized baby gifts are a part of those special moments (read it here). This week, we get to share another momentous occasion where our personalized baby gifts play a supporting role, courtesy of one of our Brand Enthusiasts, Carly of Ever Clever Mom.
Carly’s little boy Calvin turned one and she posted some beyond adorable shots on her blog of him throughout his first year. In his fun birthday portraits, Calvin is wearing a customized outfit that combines the design of one of our personalized onesies (Modern Monogram) with one of our 1st birthday shirts (Colorful Number). It’s his special day, so his outfit should be just as special, right?
We love these shots of Calvin playing with his “smash pie.” How cute is this lil guy?!
To see more shots of Calvin celebrating his big day, as well as to read about Carly’s reflections on his first year, click here to visit the Ever Clever Mom blog.
Knowing we could help make this milestone a little more festive just makes our day – no, our whole year! Please let us know if any of our personalized baby gifts, big brother shirts, big sister shirts, 1st birthday shirts, etc has been a part of a big moment in your and your little ones’ lives.
Joint Birthday Party Ideas
If your children have birthdays close together or by coincidence share the same birth date (though different years), it often makes sense to throw one party. But how do you recognize each child while celebrating at the same time? We have a few ideas to create a special day for both.
- Choose a color scheme using each child’s favorite hues that will work well together – like aqua and orange, blue and green, yellow and purple, etc.
- Allow each child to invite the same number of friends.
- Have each child wear their own birthday tee emblazoned with their age and name or choose a big brother t shirt or big sister tshirt with the coordinating little sibling personalized onesies or tees. (Shown: Colorful Number and Bulldozer 1st birthday shirts; Stitched Style Big Sister Tshirt and Little Brother shirt; Modern Fun Big Brother T shirt and Little Sister shirt)
- Cupcakes are easy to decorate in various themes at the same time, but separate cakes in coordinating themes is also a great idea to allow each child to feel special. (Cupcake image The Shopping Mama; cake table image Cake Central)
- Signs for each child also make great photo opps, like this one from Hostess with the Mostess.
Do you have any tips for joint birthday parties? Let us know how you combined two or more birthdays with décor, cakes, personalized baby gifts, etc.
Personalized Baby Gifts: Prince George’s 1st Birthday
Happy 1st Birthday Prince George!!
To celebrate the future heir’s first birthday, People.com put together a fun gift guide for Prince George inspired by his travels and adventures over the past year and we’d like to suggest a few of our personalized baby gifts we thought would be perfect as well.
This recent family portrait is beyond adorable and as designers of personalized baby gifts, we’re crazy about his name sweater! Some other options that would fit this royally cute tyke? The customizable I Love (You Pick) and I Love Grandma tees, as well as these other personalized baby gifts:(photo credit: Jason Bell/Camera Press/Redux)
Either of the Zoo Friends or Animal Crackers personalized growth charts would make a perfect gift to record even more milestones for this little animal lover, shown here at the Taronga Zoo in Australia.
Purple may be the color of royalty, but the little prince seems to prefer blue. The Classic Monogram and Modern Name personalized onesies would make great gifts to pair with the various rompers he’s often seen wearing. (photo credit John Stillwell/Getty Images)
Of all of our 1st birthday shirts, we think the Playful Party Hat photo tee would be ideal for the chubby cheeked prince to wear on his big day.
We hope Prince George has a very happy birthday and wonder if a big brother t shirt will be in order by his second birthday!
What We Love Now: Your Birthday Infographic Pictures
In addition to designing personalized baby gifts, we also have fun creating freebies for mamas, daddies, and wee ones to enjoy. We get a lot of joy ourselves when our customers send us photos of their little ones in our big brother shirts, big sister shirts, 1st birthday shirts, etc., but we weren’t prepared for the amazing response we received from the birthday infographic freebie we made (click here to download). We have received so many photos of children (even an adult or two to be honest) posing with their completed infographics and we just had to share!
Look at these photos that have us smiling from ear to ear!
We love that parents got creative with it as well, coloring it all in or framing it so they can write on it with a dry erase marker and reuse it. Some parents have even Photoshopped the information on AFTER taking the photo in order to save it. This makes our hearts sing! The whole reason we design personalized growth charts, big sister shirts, big brother shirts, and 1st birthday shirts (and freebies!) is to create keepsakes so parents can have a tangible piece of those precious childhood memories.