Name: Aanya (1)
Location: Duvall, WA

Since my daughter was a couple months old, I had been keeping an inspiration board for her first birthday. However tragedy hit our family a few months before her birthday (my dad passed away after a short but very traumatic battle with brain cancer). Anya and I were away from home to be with my family on her birthday.

She had a wonderful day with her grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins and great grandparents. Still her dad wasn't there to celebrate with us. When I got back to our home in Duvall, I knew I wanted to have a little celebration of her first year. I wanted to celebrate the little girl who had made me smile on the worst days of my life, the one that had given a reason to my days. Because even though the year had brought the worst day of my life, it had brought the best too and I had to celebrate that. And that was my inspiration. I wanted her to enjoy the day and for our little family to celebrate the joy of her first year together.

I had a pretty good idea in my head of what I wanted, thanks to my inspiration board from Pinterest. I wanted to keep it simple, colorful and fun. I baked the vanilla frosted cake myself and kept the rest of the food simple and fun. I DIY'd a couple of decorations including the banner, the garland, the yarn wrapped 'A', the favor bags, the felt garland for the high chair. Since I'm a proud Mom photographer, I hung up pictures from her first year over the dining area and some of our closest friends joined in with us. It turned out to be a perfect little celebration.

Thanks Nats! Readers, see more of Aanya's party on Lazy Girl's World.

(Images: Nataliya Khan)

• MY PARTY ARCHIVE
• SUBMIT YOUR CHILD'S PARTY