If you know us, you know we are Chick Fil A's BIGGEST fans. Not to be dramatic, but it is an integral part of our lives. In fact, my husband Matt was a Chick Fil A employee when he was a teenager. Uhhh FATE! I actually remember going to the CFA where he worked when I was 15 and he was on the register. Like, we knew each other but weren't close or anything. In those days I liked my chicken sandwich without pickles, but I didn't want him to think I was high maintenance. So I was sure not to mention that in my order that he was taking. LOL. Young love. And now we've been married almost 10 years and, pickle fetish aside, he would probably tell you I'm high maintenance. But IT'S TOO LATE, MATTY! And now I actually love pickles so we've come full circle over here. I should've known that Chick Fil A knew the way to the perfect sandwich all along. They always know what's best for me. Bless you, Truett Cathy. Bless you, CFA.
I digress.
So Cow Appreciation Day (ahem THE most wonderful day of the year) is a v important right of passage in our family. We cancel all plans that day so we can enjoy the Lord's' bounty over and over again while continually thanking Him for his goodness to us in this way. Since it was cancelled last year due to Covid, we decided to just make our own! And what better way to celebrate the sweetest boy than with the Lord’s food? It just made sense. We made his first official unofficial cow day one to remember.
This is our pregnancy announcement on Cow Day in 2019. In case you didn't believe our dedication was real.
We had so much fun celebrating our little nugget turning one! We had a smaller celebration than usual to keep everyone safe. Ollie, you’re sweeter than sweet tea and you have so many people who love you SO much! It was truly MY PLEASURE to plan and throw this birthday for you, Buddy.
If you don't know my sweet boy's story you can read a little bit about it here. Basically, his life is an absolute miracle and we are completely smitten with him. The smiliest, happiest man on the planet. We owe his life to the good Lord and know that each and every day with him is a gift. That being said, this birthday was an emotional one for me. There was a day last year that I thought about how painful January 8 was going to be for the rest of my life. I was so sure I was about to lose my boy. But praise the Lord for healing my Ollie. In those hard months, God taught me so much about relying on Him and Him alone. So instead of crying tears of sadness this year, I cried tears of joy. Because I get to watch my son grow. I'm bursting with thankfulness. I get to hold him everyday and kiss him and tell him I love him over and over again. He made 2020 SO worth it. He is the greatest gift and I will never stop praising the good GOOD Lord for giving him to me.
So without further ado,
Our Little Nugget Is ONE!
Starting with his Facebook party invitation:
What makes us warm and fuzzy and filled with much glee?
Chicken sandwiches, sweet tea and our little Ollie!
What better way to celebrate our man turning one
Than with nuggets and fries and parfaits and fun!?
It’s MY PLEASURE to invite you to share in our joy!
So come Eat Mor Chikin with our precious boy!
For this party I didn't get a ton of inspiration from Pinterest so I had to actually come up with original ideas. GASP! However, it wasn't too hard because CFA lives in my heart.
Like always, I'll just walk you through the house starting with the entry! I found this inflatable cow on Amazon for $8 and it spoke to me. Hobby Lobby (the next love of my life...next time) had these cow print balloons in their farm party section. $1.59 for 10. To celebrate, my overzealous 3 year old promptly (and I mean promptly) released them. So they partied in the neighbor's tree instead (sorry, neighbors). For the door decor I just used a canvas, paint, paper, ribbon and Mod Podge.
For the entry I just hung these red pinwheels from the ceiling (also from Hobby Lobby that I bought for my 6 year old daughter's THIRD birthday. I think I've used them appx 40 times since. They've seen better days but were perfect for yet another occasion). I also found this red striped banner at HL on clearance for $1. I Googled "chick fil a font" and found the whole alphabet. The more you know. I used that to copy his name onto the banner with a Sharpie.
The dining room is the food room...so the best room. I bought my balloon arch base on Amazon a few years ago and I hope you're ready to see it at every party forever and ever amen. I'm obsessed. It's so versatile. I bought 4 packs of balloons at Hobby Lobby ($1.59 each), got out my pump (trust me, you'll want a pump), and turned my house into a balloon pit for a few hours until I had time to assemble. The children were in heaven. I always get cool mom points on balloon arch day. Just be sure to expect a few casualties. The balloons, not the children. Just to be clear.
On the menu:
A chicken nugget platter from CFA DUH
Our 3 favorite large sauce bottles (you know you can buy these at CFA for $2.50 each??)
Waffle fries
Yogurt parfaits
Copycat CFA mac n cheese
This is the Lord's food.
The mac and cheese was a true labor of love. I first saw the price on the CFA catering menu and felt personally attacked. But then I paused and thought, certainly this is for a reason. I know their intentions are pure and it surely must be worth it. Well, I found a copycat recipe online and now understand that it is worth every penny. It took me a solid hour of active cooking (plus 30+ min of grating the day before) while my children destroyed the house. However, the result was an angelic symphony of cheeses singing the Hallelujah Chorus on my tongue. An out of body experience. Remarkable. The recipe said it feeds FOUR. So I doubled it crossing my fingers that it was enough. Well, by four I think they meant four hundred. Times 2. I rejoice. So I [accidentally] made appx 8 tons of it. Blessings. The leftovers have been making my heart soar. You can find the recipe here.
I did replace the BellaVitano Gold cheese (like, what is this- I could find it nowhere) with a Gouda block from Trader Joes. I read that the Gold cheese was nutty. So I did some forensic work and found that Gouda is also nutty. Then the last step called for a torch. Yes. Torch. So I borrowed one from my brother to melt the cheese on top (it's not actually baked). But as soon as I triggered the blaze I instantly assumed my new role as a flame-throwing cartoon villain. Then reality sunk in and I foresaw myself burning the house down in a passionate cheese-fueled rampage. And Truett would not have wanted that. I couldn't risk my family's well-being for the mac. As important as it was. So Matt had the genius idea to just broil it in the oven to brown the top. This is why I married him. How...safe.
I also made tiny parfaits. I got the cute clear, plastic serving cups at Dollar Tree and filled them with vanilla yogurt, granola and berries.
It was morning when we picked up our CFA order so the restaurant wasn't serving fries yet. So we just bought frozen waffle fries at Kroger and baked our own. Not nearly the same but whatever.
Potato- po-tato. Amirite?
Featured in the picture above is Matt's actual nametag from when he worked at CFA. A national treasure. It even says "1 year service." It was MADE for my party. I just replaced Matt's name with Ollie's with my label maker. I've also had that "1" since my daughter's first birthday and just keep replacing the paper to match my themes.
I also saved a few packaging components from previous meals to use as decor. A few bags (that weren't greased through), nugget/fry containers, and cups. I used the cups to house little flower arrangements. As a high-class, fancy fast food establishment, you can often find carnations on their tables. I mean, RIP dining in there these days, but, ya know, in the old days.
I found the red/white check table cloth at Hobby Lobby a year ago and it is actually one thing that inspired this theme. I saw it and instantly had a vision of steamy chicken nuggets swirling around in a mystical sea of red and white. Cows were picketing nearby and my eyes simply gleamed at the sight. Then I came back to Earth and gazed at my then-infant, asleep in the stroller. I smiled softly and thought, "It is good." I've been planning ever since. Again, not to be dramatic.
I got a yard of cow fabric at Joann for a few dollars and just folded it to make a table runner.
So I actually have a cake business called Katie Cakes. I'm so thankful for all of the biz I got in that area. It was a blessings. However, as my herd of Hedges has kept growing I just don't have the time or energy to keep up. So I put it on pause for the foreseeable future. Maybe one day I'll do it again. But until then, I just enjoy making my babies birthday cakes and whatever strikes my fancy throughout the year.
In addition to the banner, the Chick Fil A alphabet heavily inspired his cake as well. I used fondant to make the details. I used to color all of my fondant by hand (and will continue to do so if I need a large amount of one color), but I just discovered how cheap it is at Hobby Lobby! You can buy small amounts of any color for $$3.50. AND it often goes 30% off! It was the exact amount of black and red that I needed and saved me so much time and dyed hands not having to make these deep colors myself. It's so hard to make a pure red and black. I found the little wooden "1" at HL and painted it and glued it to a popsicle stick for the cake topper.
Cute pic of Ollie because he's tastier than cake and I just feel like it:
The other side of the room had plates/utensils, the smash cake and book. I started the book thing at Presley's first birthday and have done it at every birthday since. Instead of a guestbook I buy a themed book and ask everyone to write a note to the birthday kid in it. Then I put it in their baby box so they can read them all one day. There's "Sign a page for Presley," "Write a letter for Leo," and now "Write an ode to Oliver." Way too proud of these alliterations. I usually get my plates/napkins/forks at Dollar Tree because they have every color AND THEY'RE JUST ONE DOLLAR! An invigorating concept.
The living room has the drink bar and the king's throne. All of my parties here have basically the same layout. It just works. I bought a bunch of plastic cow-print table cloths (Amazon or Hobby Lobby for under $5) and used them around. I hung one behind the bar along with a banner made of Ollie's month pictures. I just used cow print, red and black scrapbook paper and ribbon to make it. We served Coke/Diet Coke, sweet tea and lemonade to drink.
Friendly piece of advice: If you live in a house full of young children, do not hang foreign objects from the ceiling a week in advance. Or any days in advance. Save yourself the time and heartache. I can't tell you how many times this was obliterated in the 7 days between me hanging it and the actual party. It's fine. Everything's fine.
I just used tape (it didn't harm the paint) to tape streamers and another plastic table cloth to the ceiling for the backdrop. I borrowed my mother-in-law's high chair because it's cuter than mine and I'm bougie and I care about those things. Is that what the kids say? Bougie? I used my embroidery machine to embroider his name onto some fabric then used coordinating fabric (all from Joann) to slipknot strips around the jute ribbon to make the high chair banner.
I got the cute red corduroy overalls for the cake smash on Amazon for $8. My buttercream has Crisco in it and it is MESSY! I always plan ahead to avoid covering cute outfits in grease spots.
LASTLY, speaking of icing on the cake. All of my dreams came true as I turned my children into my very own Chick Fil A employees. If only they could actually bring me chicken and clean up after themselves. And tell me I'm pretty. Ok well the real employees don't actually do that but I bet they would if you asked! And also, to my delight, one of my children did assume her role quite literally. I found her organizing and deep cleaning my house after the party. She is a delight. It is my pleasure to get to raise that girl. I bought their red polos from Children'sPlace.com and found the CFA logo on Etsy as an embroidery file. My machine proceeded to finally find it's true purpose as she delicately stitched out this beloved symbol of American joy and pride. She felt honored. I tittered with delight.
All that to say, we had so much fun celebrating our precious miracle boy in the best way we knew how. I pray that he grows up to know and love the Lord, understanding fully how blessed he is to be HIS. We are humbled and honored that God entrusted our little Ollie to us. I think we got the best gift the day he was born. This year was HARD but the reward has been oh so sweet.
So here are some pics of my cute boy enjoying his very own cake for the first time.
Happy birthday, Ollie Wally. You light up our lives. Momma loves you SO MUCH! More than Chick Fil A. And after spending an hour writing about how much I love Chick Fil A, I love you a lot, okay?
As always, don't forget to Eat Mor Chikin!
Blessings.
Such a cute party! How did you get the ribbon/banner to attach to the high chair ?
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