Harper Avery's First Birthday Party

May 23, 2013 - Harper Avery Rankin turned ONE! I cannot express how much I love my sweet girl. She is such a blessing!

Her birthday this year was on a Thursday night so her party was not until Saturday afternoon at the River Park (free location.)

Nathan has a tradition for each child. On the night of the girls' birthday - he takes them out for dinner and dessert. Just him and the child. He says he has to date his daughters. It is probably one of the sweetest things ever!

I get them dressed up - he dresses up too and we take some pictures and they head out on their date. So sweet!

Aren't they just so cute! Harper was so excited about her night out with daddy. They went to Chick fil a for dinner and Sweet Frog for frozen yogurt. 

Saturday came and we headed to the River Park around 1:15 to set up for the party. This took me less than ten minutes. I was very happy. I could enjoy the party just like everyone else...not missing a minute. 

Little Miss Harper and I. 

Simple but cute Owl theme decorations. I found everything at Walmart and it was on clearance!! Score! 

I stayed up Friday night making cupcakes for the party. I made a total of 4 dozen and it took me about an hour. Yummy. 

Present time! My friend Becca held Harper for me. So sweet. 

What a ham. She loved the cards the most! 

Cake time! Nathan purchased a sugar free smash cake for Harper to destroy. 

She loved it! She even got mad when I took it away from her but I was not going to let her eat a bunch of it. lol 

The River Park has a great playground for the kids plus walking trails so you can see the river. So beautiful. The kids rode in the wagon Harper got for her birthday after Nathan and some of the guys put it together. They had SO much fun! 

Lesson Learned: You do not need to spend a ton of money to have a wonderful birthday party. We spent under $30 - saturday morning we added chips, pretzels, fruit (for dinner), drinks, ice and a small smash cake. And we still have half of the drinks leftover!