First Birthday Party!

Well, it's almost a year later, but as I was looking for party ideas for our son's 2nd birthday, I realized I had not posted what we did last year for his 1st. A first birthday is a big deal! So many changes take place in the 1st year, and making it through a year with a brand new baby is something to celebrate! We decided to have two parties for our son- one for family, and one for friends. We had the parties in our home and our basement was not finished, so space was limited. We decided to do an "Animals on Parade" theme.

I saw this cake on Pinterest, of course, and the whole party kind of evolved from that. I just frosted the cake with store bought frosting, added sprinkles, and then made a tiny banner out of scrap book paper that matched the other colors I was using in his party.

This is his smash cake. My friend had a tiny cake pan I used to make it. We had done pretty well keeping him off of sweets for the first year, so he was pretty excited to finally eat some sugar!

 I also made some cupcakes for the big day! The cupcake toppers and birthday sign came from Hobby Lobby. And of course we had to have balloons!

I bought these wooden letters for his professional pictures and didn't know how to use them to decorate at the party. I decided to duct tape them to paint stirrers that had been painted white. I had the flower pots up here anyway, so I used flower pot foam to stick the stirrers in and then covered it with Easter basket grass.

I had a TON of Beanie Babies left over from my childhood. I picked out all of the jungle animals (same theme as his nursery) and lined them up on parade across the mantle. Some of them were riding the train we gave him from Ikea, which also matched the banner we bought at Hobby Lobby.

Of course I had to sew some things too. This is the birthday shirt I made. You can't see in the picture very well, but the "1" in the truck is actually a candle with a little yellow flame on it.

And a birthday bib too! My parents and brother bought him a red wagon for his birthday so I thought this was perfect! 

Success!

We did not have any special activities planned for the first birthday. We basically ate cake, opened presents, and we had lunch at the family party. We are so thankful for our one year old! (Even if he's just one for a few more days!)