since i got a few emails asking for sammy's party decor details, i thought i would include them on the blog. i would just like to note that many loving friends folded paper, glued countless beans, spent a frustrating evening hanging fans, and contributed their artistic and craft-tastic talents to make sammy's first birthday special.














tissue fans - recycled from a baby shower, originally purchased at paper tuesday. if you want more color choices you can also find them at sweet lulu.

paper fans - diy. made from wrapping paper and scrapbook paper following these tutorials (here and here).

table runner - diy. made using this fabric and this trim.

dohl towers - diy. my friend eunice and i made these towers following this tutorial. i made the simpler one using this template and eunice made the amazing dragon one using this template. since our babies are close in age we used the towers for each of our babies' dohls. it worked out great! she hot glued a red bow on the dragon to fit her party theme, and then i hot glued a ribbon bow tie fit mine.

wood letters - from joann's, but you can pretty much find them at any craft store.

cake - i purchased a simple white vanilla cake from indigo pineapple. it was soooo delicious! i wrapped the base with ribbon and topped it with diy pinwheels made by my lovely sister and my friend anna following this tutorial. instead of using one piece of scrapbook paper they used two pieces of scrapbook paper and glued them back to back to add more color. they also used leftover paper straws instead of dowels.

flowers - my super talented friend sophia did all the floral arrangements. she did such a lovely job. i saw this idea on pinterest. i thought it was a creative way to use old baby food jars.

table runner - diy. made using this fabric.

circle banner - diy. mike punched out a TON of circles (isn't he so great?) using a circle puncher and i sewed them together. super quick and easy.

balloons - from party city.

dohljabi sign & jars - my love, annie, who is a craft goddess made sammy's dohl sign and jar labels. the straws i bought from here. the straw labels i made using this free word template.

happy birthday banner - from minted.

sammy's cake smash bib - diy. made by my bff eunice. isn't it the cutest thing ever? i am not sure how she made it but i found this tutorial for a diy bib and one for a no-sew bow tie.

i hope you find this helpful!













this post is a month late, but our lil boy is one! i know every parent says this, but seriously, these lil ones grow up way too fast.




we had two parties for our special boy. the first one was with our s&l friends at church. sammy's aunties helped decorate and we had a great time celebrating. these photos were taken by our talented friend, angela.



the second one was in our home with a few friends and family. these amazing photos were taken by our good friend, justin. 


my amazing sister, and my dear friends, sofa, annie, eunice, and a lovely group from s&l helped make all my pinterest dreams come true. thank you guys!



sammy woke up just in time for his party which worked out perfectly because he was so dazed for the first 30 minutes we were able to get a few decent pictures of him in his hanbok. 



our lil prince


"what is going on here?!"


sammy with his favorite aunt.




after a quick outfit change, sammy was ready to party. aren't these two photos the best. cracks me up everytime.



sammy picked a bowl of rice during his dohl jabi. dohl jabi is a korean tradition where a few items are placed in front of the child, and the item he chooses is believed to foretell the child's future (ball = athlete, pencil = scholar, string = long life, rice = abundant life, money = wealth, mic = entertainer). obviously we don't believe that his future rests on this simple act (especially since sammy was very hungry), but it was fun anyway.


of course we had to give sammy a taste of his birthday cake. as you can tell he (and penny) loved it. the adorable bib was made by none other than my bff, eunice. isn't she amazing?


i had to post these because they are so cute. poor anna, she just wanted to give sammy a birthday hug and sammy was not having any of it. 

thanks for reading! till next time.