I had a wonderful time planning my daughter's very first birthday party. It was a lot of work, but only because I insisted on making a lot of my own decorations to save money!
We held the party at our community activity room, which was great. I highly recommend "destination" birthday parties. You won't have to clean up your house to have a million kids and parents trudging around. In addition, you'll want a space large enough that everyone can watch the guest of honor and festivities comfortably. Plus, it was nice coming home to a quiet house afterwards.
The only downside is having to load & unload your car of all the decorations & food and such. On the day of Harper's birthday party, we had unusual weather. It was humid, which wasn't unusual. The random downpours that occurred throughout the day were unusual. And one of the downpours happened to be when I was trying to unload the car and go set up.
**sigh**
Of course.
But I made it work. And my legs and back paid for it later.
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I put a birthday banner outside the activity room. There were also festive balloons. But there's something scientific about humidity and helium because they deflated before any of the guests arrived. It was very sad looking. I cut the sad deflated balloons free before I took the photo.
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In case there was any confusion about where to go, I made a Dr. Seuss inspired sign. The playground would have been nice for the kiddos had it not been raining. We did have a covered patio where I set out bubbles and sidewalk chalk. But again, the rain and humidity made it quite uncomfortable outside. But at least they knew where to go! ;o)
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I hung a simple fabric bunting across the door. I made it from colorful scraps of fat quarters that I had leftover from making a tutu for my daughter's 1st birthday pictures. Then I glued the triangles to a piece of yarn. Done and done! The ADORABLE invitations were created by Kristen Lawlor over at Little Law's Prints on Etsy. I had found a boy version of the invitation and she helped me out by making a girl version! And I LOVED them!!!! I'm not sure why I hung the invitation on the door. To remind people why they're there?!
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It was important to me that the party be COLORFUL. Since the theme was
Oh, the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss, I had a good place to start. I bought table cloths and balloons at Party City that matched the cover of the book perfectly.
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Here's the birthday banner I made! You can see how I made it here.
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*I set it on a round table cloth from Party City. Which was a great idea considering how much fun she had with the cake later.
*I made the "one" banner in the same fashion as her birthday banner.
*The bib was purchased from Amazon.
*The little party hat was purchased at Party City. It was originally a headband and I just snapped off the plastic headband parts and attached elastic. I can't tell you how excited I was to find that little party hat. I was initially planning to make my own. And it was just another project to add to my growing list. But then I stumbled across this hat. It was in the baby shower section of Party City, intended for a Mommy-to-be to wear. It was the PERFECT size for a little baby's noggin and the colors matched to perfection. Plus it coordinated with the bib as if it were made to be a set. It might have been my favorite find when shopping. Oh, it's the little things....
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Okay, I change my mind. Maybe that was my favorite find when shopping. I made the cake banner using labels, yarn, cat toys, and Bamboo Skewers. HAH! Check out my tutorial here. The cake stand was plastic & a few dollars from Party City.
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These monthly pictures banners. Y'all. I love them so much I'd hang them in my house somewhere. I had two because my
*I printed them at my local photo printing shop, Bedford's.
*I used green clothesline found at Dollar Tree. I bought one package and made 4 different banners with tons left over.
*I used clothespins left over from my classroom. I covered them with pastel polka dot washi tape that I found at Michael's.
*At the ends of the banner, I stuck gift bows to cover the tape that I used to hang it. Brilliant, if I do say so myself.
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If there was one thing I'd NOT make, and just freaking purchase, it'd be this tissue paper tassel banner.
*I saw this quick how-to on how to make the pieces and I thought it'd be super easy! So I went out and bought a bunch of pastel paper, polka dot paper, and stripes. All very cute paper. Spent too much on paper. Plus it took FOREVER to cut it and roll it. Who knew?!?! I should have just bought the banner somewhere (I saw them at Hobby Lobby) and been done with that part of it. The plus side was that I was able to position the tassels far apart to accommodate the signs.
*The signs.
Also something I'd put in my house. I took my favorite quotes from the book, typed them in Word, printed them, and glued them to colorful paper, also left over from my classroom. I used the font Doctor Soos, which can be downloaded for free here.
*The clothespins were the same as the monthly pictures banner. Covered them with pastel polka dot washi tape that I found at Michael's.
This banner was hung on the food bar. Folks read the quotes as they filled their plates!
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Hanging above the gift table was a TV, provided by the activity room. It had a DVD player hooked up out of sight. So I made a slide show of weekly collages that I made throughout her first year. The collages are in a book that I had printed. I uploaded these collages to Flickr each week for family to view. Each collage had a visual representation of growth and milestones. I cry when I look at them. What a sap.
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*I found tags on Etsy that I printed and attached.
*At Party City, I found the clear treat bags, pastel bottles of bubbles, pastel silly straws, and play dough (in what else? pastel colors)
*I also put in a pouch of Mott's applesauce.
There was a wee little baby at our party so he got a different treat bag. His contained some cute rattles and teething rings.
*I printed a quick label for each bag that had the name of the recipient (using the Doctor Soos font). I didn't want one of the bigger kids to get the baby treat bag. I also tried to give siblings the same colors so that fights would not ensue over playdough.
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I've seen this idea everywhere. Get a copy of the book and have the guests leave little messages for the birthday girl. So I did! You can find signs out there to put by the book, but I typed up my own. There are some very kind and thoughtful things written in this book for Harper to read later!
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Another idea I've seen is to hang up all of the "first" onesies that Baby wore. Throughout the year, as each holiday approached, I found Harper a onesie. First Halloween, First Christmas, etc. She had one for nearly every month! I hung them at her party as a banner "A Year of First Celebrations." Had I thought about it, I could have also had a photo album of her in the onesies, too. It's pretty adorable to see the tiny Thanksgiving onesie compared to the larger 4th of July onesie. One guest pointed out "I've never seen clothes used as party decorations before!" Well, you just did!!!
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Okay, okay, okay, so I love this. LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm excitedly typing now! The book has hot air balloons in it. So I used hot air balloons as centerpieces on each table. Guess who is "driving" the little balloons? Little Harper! I managed to capture a few photos of her pointing up. I printed two of each photo, one regular, one flipped horizontally. I cut them each out and pasted them back to back. So no matter which direction you're looking, you'll see her! HAHAHA!!!!
*The balloon baskets are from Hobby Lobby and they're called mini take out boxes. I attached a mini banner that I found in the scrapbooking section and colored with pastel markers.
*I attached a balloon filled with helium and voila! Done!
The table centerpieces also contain a frame with quotes from the book. I got the frames for $2 from Party City. All of this is sitting on two sheets of pastel scrapbook paper.
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I didn't get a good picture of my food buffet and it was the ONE thing that I was so excited about that I actually got chill bumps when I was done setting up. I can't believe I didn't get pictures of it. The next day I told my husband we were going to Kroger, buying all the same food, going back to the party room to set it back up, JUST so I could take pictures. Naturally he laughed because an idea that absurd could only be a joke....
Right?
Oh well, lesson learned.
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I bought plates and napkins from Party City & Hobby Lobby respectively. Before the food got there, I labeled each platter so that my husband knew where everything belonged.
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We served burgers. And sliders for the little ones. I already owned a few pastel platters and bowls, but I went to the Dollar Tree for a few more. I also bought mustard, mayo, & ketchup dispensers from Kroger. We had mac & cheese, potato chips, and baked beans as sides. And a cute little display of cupcakes for dessert.
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I borrowed some adorable drink dispensers from a friend and filled them with some tropical fruit punch and some lemonade. I even had some cute straws available!
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If water was more someone's taste, I had a small ice chest of water bottles available on the floor at the end of the food buffet. By the way, have you noticed all the purple? We have an abundance of purple gear for tailgating. Go UCA Bears!
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The kiddos had a bucket of Capri-Sun or small water bottles for their drink choice.
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I decorated above the food buffet with paper fans from Party City. I bought 2 packs.
Guess how I hung them? With Ceiling Hanglers. Leftover from my classroom, but you can get a bag of them from Mardel. Of course this only works if you're dealing with ceiling tiles.
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On the buffet I needed something tall & colorful. And inexpensive. A friend (the same one who let me borrow her drink dispensers--a truly great gal!) texted me one day with a question.
"Do you have any use for gumballs?"
Ordinarily I'd say no. But an idea struck. So I said yes! She had come across some and had no use for them. I decided to make some kind of table centerpieces with them. I found two tall plastic vases at Party City for a few dollars a piece. I filled them each with the pastel gumballs.
Then I stuck dowel rods in the vases. At the end of the dowel rods, I stapled gift bows.
Strange? Yes.
Adorable? ABSOLUTELY!!!!!
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Overall, I'm thrilled with how the decorating went. Everything was bright, colorful, and cheerful. Folks made me feel good when they complimented the work I'd done. It made it so special for me & my husband, and of course for the guest of honor.
Stay tuned for pics of the birthday party!
