Milk and Cookies First Birthday

In a few short days, my baby is turning one!  I can't believe it.  This past year has gone by with alarming quickness and now, before I know it, my baby isn't so much of a baby anymore!
We ended up having to have her birthday party this past weekend because my mother-in-law would be away during her real birthday.  Also, since I will be going back to work next week (boo-urns), it was nice to get the big festivities out of the way before my first day back - cut down on the chaos!

I, as most pinners do, have a crazy obsession with Pinterest and therefore started there to chose a birthday party theme.  There are so many great ideas on this amazing website but as soon as I saw some Milk & Cookies party pics I knew this was the winner!

So started a few weeks in advance and made nine different types of cookies; my goal was to make ten different batches but by the ninth one I was done!  Sugar cookies (family recipe), gingersnaps (family recipe), coconut macaroons (Joy of Baking), chocolate chip (family recipe), oatmeal raisin (Aristocrafty), Oreo pops (Hip Hip Horray Blog), minty s'more cookies (Tip Junky), pinwheels (from Schnitzel and boo), and chocolate chip cookiedough cheesecake bars (Brady's Baking) were on the menu.  I also prepared a milk bar that offered skim, 1%, 2%, and homogenized milk, along with chocolate, rolo, and strawberry syrups for flavoring.

For decor I tried to keep things as INEXPENSIVE as possible!  For the table I used a tablecloth I already had and then went to the Dollar Store and got the thin pink and white plastic table covers , which I taped to the front and laid along the back of the table.  I bought the pink sparkly O,N,E from Walmart for $2 each.  I used different platters I already owned and then for the Oreo pops, I bought some foam and covered it with paper and ribbon.  I place it on top of a coffee cup and voila - a cake pop stand!  I also went to Home Depot and bought some ceramic tiles (the edge pieces) and made them into my cookie markers - they work perfectly with a dry erase marker!

For the milk bar I went to IKEA and bought six large glass bottles for $2.99 each.  I used some ribbon and chalk decals from Uppercase Living to decorate.  The smaller milk bottles I purchased on-line and simply added a ribbon to make them pop.  The amazing paper straws (they did not get mushy at all in the milk) were purchased from an Etsy shop called Hey Yo Yo.  I also used a large chalk decal for the milk bar sign, which I put on board I bought from Home Depot for $6.

Here's a picture of me with the birthday girl!  We ended up just have one cupcake for her to smash into, rather than a full cake.  There were so many cookies I'm glad I decided not to add more sweets in the end.  She had an awesome time and we were so happy to spend the afternoon with family that we do not always get to see. 

Happy birthday Miss Kate, I love you more than I can say.  You are such a sweetie and I'm so very proud to call myself your mom.  xxoo