Birthday party recap

The birthday boy.

  I promise I will eventually get the Easter and first haircut photos up on the blog, but I figured everyone would be more excited about seeing pictures from Owen's first birthday party. We held it last Saturday at our home church in the town where Tim's parents and my parents live. We were surrounded by close friends and family and we had an absolutely wonderful time. Owen ate up all the attention and didn't mind being passed from person to person at all.

   The party was Dr. Seuss-themed and his books (and Pinterest) were a great source of ideas for everything from food to decorations. Even our clothing was Seuss-themed. Some of my favorite details were Tim's and my Thing Dad and Thing Mom shirts, the colorful food display with themed labels and the coordinating books from which they were inspired, the birthday banner and other cute printables I found online, and Owen's name sign, which I made with my cousin and a friend by decoupaging pictures and words from a copy of The Cat in the Hat to letters I bought at Hobby Lobby. (Yes, I cut up a book. It wasn't a first edition).
    The room came together rather quickly and I was really pleased with the final product of my two months of brainstorming and creating and buying... I don't have a photo of the entire room, but I have several of many of the details. I had several tables and areas set up around the room. Here's a quick description of each and some photos. 
    Table One: Near the door, I had a sign-in table with the book "Happy Birthday to You" for guests to sign, along with a framed invitation, a sign instructing guests what to do (in Dr. Seuss rhyming form, of course), a bucket of pens, and some stacked Dr. Seuss blocks that my aunt found at Sam's Club the day before the party.

     Table Two: This table was sort-of a mish-mash of things that didn't have any other place to go. It was here that I put the party favors for the kiddos (all four of them). Each child got a Dr. Seuss book and a rainbow swirl lollipop.The table also had party hats. I bought the party hats online on a party supply website and then glued the puffy red balls on top that I found at Michael's for just $1.98. At the end of the table was a trivia game for guests to complete to see who knew the most facts about Owen. The three top scorers went home with our Gerbera Daisy centerpieces. Not surprisingly, my two sister-in-laws and one of my best friends were the winners. 

Trivia questions included, "When did Owen first start consistently sleeping through the night?" (Answer: Four months) and "What fruit does Owen hate?" (Bananas.)

Party hats.

Labeled party favor bag with custom thank you tag.

Grownup favors.

Here is a close-up of the favor tag.

     Table Three: This was the drink table. We had two glass containers featuring "Pink Ink Yink Drink" (pink lemonade) and "Beezelnut Splash" (Sprite with blue and yellow Jello floating in it). We also offered water bottles, which I wrapped with a custom printed label.

     Table Four: The food table (counter) turned out to be really colorful and attractive. I laid out all the foods on platters and in bowls and then paired them with custom labels that described the foods and what Dr. Seuss book they were inspired by. Other than the chips and salsa, all the foods came from a Dr. Seuss book. I also propped up the specific book that the food was featured in next to the dish. The food was served on Dr. Seuss Happy First Birthday plates that I bought online at a party supply website. We served Ham I Am sandwiches (ham and swiss cheese on a Hawaiian roll with a special mustard sauce over top), green-dyed deviled eggs, oodles of noodles pasta salad, Yertle's caramel turtles (pretzels, rolos, and pecans), truffula fruits (strawberries, grapes and pineapple), fish in a pot (goldfish crackers), ABC cookies, and Swedish fish. 

The food display.

    Table Five: The cake table featured a cupcake tower with red, white, and pool blue frosted cupcakes (labeled Who-cakes) and Owen's smash cake, which was shaped like the Cat in the Hat's top hat. The cupcakes were decorated with cupcake toppers that I made in four different designs with the number one, Owen's name, a picture of a Dr. Seuss-style cake, and one with a cake that said Happy First Birthday Owen. 

Yummy! The cake table.

Owen's "smash cake" - made especially for him to mess up.

    Table Six: The gift table. I just hung a custom sign on this table. And presents quickly overwhelmed it.

     
     Other decorations included a balloon wreath on the front door, a Happy Birthday pennant banner and the letters spelling Owen's name that I mentioned earlier. I don't have a photograph of the balloon wreath, but I made it based on a tutorial I found on Pinterest and it turned out really cute. I also hung a pennant banner on the front of Owen's high chair and we had balloon bouquets throughout the room as well. 

The birthday boy's special chair - a brand new high chair from my parents.

A closer look at the banner and letters.

    Owen had a fabulous time at the party. He enjoyed being the center of attention and he loved all the food and cake and unwrapping presents. And he was certainly blessed with lots of those. He received so many new outfits and great books and toys.

Thing Mom and Thing Dad.

The birthday boy is almost walking.

Once again, a little cautious with the cake.

Loving all the attention from his many fans.

Note to current and future parents: red frosting can appear frightening smeared on a baby's face. Also, red stains, but thankfully my dad has some magic stuff that gets pretty much any stain out so Owen's special onesie is frosting-free again.

Opening presents.

Showing off for his audience on his brand new rocking horse.

More fun toys.

One happy boy (and mommy and daddy)

Pushing his new flapping duck.

Aunt Leah lending a hand.

     Unfortunately, I got so wrapped up in taking pictures of Owen with his cake and then opening his presents, that I didn't get hardly any pictures of Owen with our family members. If anyone took pictures of themselves with Owen, please let me know. I would love to have them!
    This party was a big labor of love. I have always loved party planning, but this party was more than just a celebration of Owen turning one. It was a celebration of the fact that we are now a drive away from our family and friends and that these people will get to be around Owen a lot more now that we've moved closer. Owen is such a loved little boy and he is so lucky to have such great people in his life. Thanks to everyone who helped make his party a success.
    Thank you to my parents for buying some of the party supplies, preparing food, and letting me use up the ink cartridges in their printer two times. Thank you to my in-laws for providing Owen's birthday cakes and those great green deviled eggs and for helping set up before the party. Thank you to my sisters-in-law for helping to set up when I was stressing out about getting everything together in time for the party. They all also helped with the clean-up. Thank you to my Aunt Twyla for spending a good thirty minutes tying the perfect bows to the flower pots and for watching Owen so that we could cook and set up the day of the party. Thank you to my cousin Johanna for making the O letter in the Owen sign and to my friend Haley for helping me complete the W, E, and N. Thank you to Jane for loaning me the drink dispensers even though she wasn't able to make it to the party. We missed you! Thank you to everyone who came to the party and helped us celebrate Owen's birthday. And thank you to anyone that I may have forgotten. Thank you to my husband for not complaining too much about spending all this money and time on a one-year-old's birthday party that he "won't even remember." And thank you to my wonderful son who makes every day an adventure and who finds fun wherever he is.