1st Birthday Celebration Part 1 (decorations)

I figured I would break this down into 2 parts.

- Part 1- decorations
- Part 2- party time

Let me start out by thanking my helpers- they were a HUGE help and I could not have done it without them. Thanks Hubby, Big BrotherC, Big SisterC, and Miss H!!!

So a lot of people asked me how I came up with this idea- welp- it went somewhat like this. We were throwing around all kinds of 1st b-day party theme ideas. We went from Pirates to Carnival big tent themes. And we started to ponder on the fact that K (and mine) birthdays are in January- poo- and they always will be. But it's usually cold- and I say usually because in Texas you  just never know- but anyhow- since we can't predict the weather- it just sucks that we can't really have an outdoor party. Or pool party- or fun party at the park.

and that got me thinking- who cares what the weather is outside? let's bring the outdoors IN and it's always sunny inside! So the research began and we settled on a camping theme- and I wanted to make the inside of our house- look like we were outside.

I designed our invitations with trees, birds, owls, a tent, and campfire. And I took those designs and made patterns out of construction paper- which we then cut out and glued together. I found how to make trees inside- here- I wanted tress to be everywhere! On each of the trees I printed out a picture of K- starting with month 1-12- so we could compare how much he has changed over the past year! I just glued those on scrapbook paper and then stuck them to the trees. We used the same scrapbook paper to make a Happy Birthday banner too.

I wanted to set up the kitchen with a "sky" effect. So then I learned how to make balloon clusters- which would be our clouds. And then we decided to fill up blue balloons with helium for the sky. So we blew up a LOT of white cloud balloons and a LOT of green balloons for leaves on the trees. You could even get more fancy and cover the white balloons with cotton- to make them look fluffy if you wanted to- or had the time to. Which I didn't.

We decided to make our front room aka: dining room- the camping room. One of K's birthday presents was a new tent  and crawl through tunnel! We set up the tent and figured out how to make a campfire with red Christmas lights. If only we knew how to play the guitar- then we could have sat and sang songs around the campfire. (talk about my kind of camping- we have our wine cooler in there and no bugs- yay!)

Our other front room/ study we turned into the kids play room. I pulled out all the toys and everything in there was kid friendly and could be played with. The kids LOVED this room!

We really wanted to make S'mores over the fire pit out in the backyard- but it turned out to be a cold and rainy day- so-
But no worries- remember- always sunny inside! We built a big fire in the fireplace and I made some S'more brownies from The Sweets Life, and we also made Mini- Vanilla Cupcakes from Weelicious. Yummy! We bought a chocolate "smash" cake and then some blue and yellow cupcakes too. So we were good on sweets. I took the designs I had used on the invitation to create cupcake toppers with pictures of the blue bird that said "Sweet Tweet" and then the owl saying "Whoo's birthday?"  I also bought some toppers that just had the #1 on them.

For other food- I wanted to cover our kitchen table with paper and do a fun scene to put the food in. I actually got this idea from one of the weekly emails I get from Parenting Magazine- and it was too cute! I knew we wanted to do a tree- so I came up with some fun green foods. Cucumbers, green grapes, pickles, and Ants on a Log (celery with cream cheese and raisins). Then I had a big yellow dividing dish that served as the sun and in it we had: pizza rolls, taquitos, and mini-corn dogs. We had ranch dip in the middle- I also had planned on putting out salsa- but I forgot to draw it in someplace- Oh well. The two flowers had cubed cheddar cheese in the orange flower and cherry tomatoes in the red flower. And finally in the cutie pie caterpillar- we had cubed mozzarella cheese, fruit dip, and pineapples. I think this turned out really cute and I will use this idea again! I just drew out the scene,  traced the bowls that the food would go in, outlined it with marker, and then the girls colored it all in with crayons for me!

All in all- I think everything turned out really great!  Take a look and let me know what you think-
* now I am no professional photographer- so please excuse my lack of skills*

Here we are getting ready- the girls coloring

our front door- to the right is the playroom and to the left is the campground

trees- trees- everywhere!



view from the front door looking in



our front foyer

the kitchen- no "sky" up yet

more kitchen-

kitchen looking out to foyer



kitchen looking out towards hallway/ living room



Birthday banner

Fun Food Table!

The green tree-

Cutie Caterpillar

Flowers and sunshine!

S'mores brownies- these were soooo good and gooey- yum!

Mini- vanilla cupcakes-

Standard gift bags for the kiddos that came.

Over the TV in our living room

kitchen with the "sky"- the kids LOVED the balloons- they were everywhere by the end of the party!

The camping room with campfire-