I had a lot of fun getting ready for his first birthday party, and I have to thank Pinterest for most of my inspiration. The danger in perusing Pinterest is sometimes the parties are just so well put together and so well planned, that you forget they are not always the real party but something put together for show. As I looked my favorite parties were the ones that are real family parties, like the one we threw for Little Brother. The best part was, we had so much of this stuff, we didn't need to buy too much.
To begin with, I created some invitations on the computer using pages and clip art from Clker. I printed them out on plain white card stock. I used the same clip art to create food labels and activity signs.
Decorations included black and yellow table cloths, caution tape, lots of trucks, yellow daffodils, balloons, and orange poster board cut into different signs.
Our meal included pulled pork sandwiches, salad, home baked macaroni and cheese, and broccoli coleslaw. We also snacked on chex mix, veggies, fruit, and cake. I tried making some rice krispy treat "paint brushes" although they didn't quite turn out as I envisioned. I had fun matching labels and construction words to the foods.
My mom always makes the boys' cakes, so I can't take any credit for the cute creation below. I can take credit for eating most of it after if came home with us, it was a mild chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.
Our favors included small sand buckets filled with bubbles, playdough, wax sticks, kit kat bars, and construction stickers.
Little Brother was turning one and our other guests ranged in age from 3 to 7. We usually host our birthday parties at a local community building, as our house is just a little too small for our large family during the colder months, so we needed to bring in some activities for the kids.
Our activities included the following:
Ring Cone Toss using small soccer cones and rings made from plastic tubing I found at Home Depot.
Construction zone bin with two kinds of beans and small trucks.
Trace a truck project using cereal cardboard tracers, construction paper, markers, and crayons.
Construction puzzles and hard hats. We owned all three puzzles and the child sized hats were also part of the favors.
Reading Zone with construction themed books. Turns out we own quite a basket full, and the pillow is one we made the case for last summer. Little Brother loves reading, and definitely took a moment to stop and peruse the books.
Even though he won't "remember" the details of the party Little Brother definitely reveled in the fun of the day. And we loved celebrating our special little guy!
This post may also have been shared at some of these terrific link parties.
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