This past weekend we celebrated the birth of Little Miss Christian Grace! Her surgery is scheduled for July 9th, three days after her birthday, so we celebrated a week early! A few months back, we decided on a “Poolside Fiesta” themed birthday party at my parent’s house. Living in San Antonio these past few years, we’ve developed an appreciation and love of Mexican culture, so I was so excited for a birthday party filled with great food, bright colors, and festive music. The majority of decor/food was bought at Hobby Lobby, Etsy, World Market, and the grocery story (HEB).
Christian’s outfit + floral crown was one of my favorite details of the party! We also got flower crowns for the women in our family (me, my mom, my mother-in-law, my sister, and my sister-in-law). I told our local florist that we wanted floral crowns inspired by Frida Kahlo, and she did not disappoint!
Decor
I reused the chalkboard from our wedding to make Christian’s info chalk board. I also reused a picture frame from our wedding to make the progress photo frame — all I needed was an old picture frame, photos, twine, and clothespins. I spent about $15 at my local grocery store on a few bouquets of flowers+greenery (plus some from my mom’s garden). This made it easy and cheap to add pops of color and detail throughout the party.
I did two main photo options. I love doing these because it gives people a place to take cute pictures and it adds a ton of color and decoration to the house! The first was outside by the pool. I made it with streamers, gold foil balloons, and balloons. I actually bought some cheap wood strips from HEB, taped it to my wall last week, and taped the streamers to it ahead of time.
The second photo op I made with tissue paper, a “ONE” garland, and a papel picado-style garland. This also doubled as the backdrop for Christian to eat her cake! For the backdrop, I folded tissue paper in half, taped it to the wall (with the fold open at the bottom), and then cut the front half in strips to look like piñata fringe. This wall was 11 tissue paper folds high and three wide.
There were little details I planned out to spread the theme throughout the party. I had empty Topo Chico bottles with a few flowers in each. We put these around the food table, dessert table, and Sangria bar. Target had adorable mini pinatas that we also put around the party. We also put artificial mini cacti on the tables. My mom had a good selection of Mexican-style place mats and blankets that were perfect under serving dishes. Lastly, picture garlands! With some 5×7 photos, twine, and clothespins, we made three large picture garlands for above the sangria bar, above the dessert table, and on the appetizer table.
Food and Drinks
Along with waters and sodas, the themed drinks of the party were Jarritos soda and a Sangria Bar! I bought the Sangria Bar jars on Amazon, and I made one white-wine Sangria and one red-wine Sangria. I bought the Papel Picado toothpicks on Amazon to make garnishes.
Since the party started at 2, I didn’t have to worry about providing a full meal for everyone. We made queso, salsa, guacamole, seven-layer dip, and I bought delicious beef tacos and chicken tacos from the frozen section at trader joes! We made individual chip bags for guests to grab.
The dessert table was one of my favorite details of the party! Our local grocery story had a great selection of Mexican pastries. The churros were a hit, and we served them with chocolate sauce and caramel sauce.
For Christian’s cake. I just baked a simple two-layer strawberry cake and iced it with cream cheese icing. I bought the cactus from the floral section at hobby lobby, and the flowers came from my mom’s garden. Simple and beautiful!
It was such an amazing day surrounded by the people who have helped us navigate our first year of parenthood. Christian’s favorite part was everyone singing her happy birthday! And now to go write some thank you notes…!
