Birthday party rundown: the crafts, food, and games

I'm ONE!

It's hard to know where to begin with Owen's party! I was so happy with how everything turned out! It was pouring all morning and I will admit to having shed some tears. I knew it would work in the house/garage, but it definitely wasn't the vision I had for the party. I told God I knew he had (much) bigger things on his plate, but if he could make it stop I'd be ever so grateful. And what do you know, around noon I saw the sun. It was hot and humid, but I'd take that over rain any day. So here's the run down on most of the things I made or organized for the party:
The invite:

The wardrobe: 

What, you don't plan your outfits for your parties? ;)  Ok so I let William dress himself, but I got the blue dress from Target because I fell in love with the flower on the neckline.  It did make me look pregnant in a few pictures, so just saying that no, I'm not pregnant.  Man I should start working out. And the orange shoes are also from Target.  

I bought Owen a plain white t-shirt from Hobby Lobby. I think I should have gone with the 24 months instead of 18 because it was tight.  I actually just used fabric, iron-on adhesive, and a pair of scissors to make the letters and numbers on his shirt.  My silhouette supposed can cut out fabric, but after a few failed attempts I just cut it out the old fashioned way.  The 1 is outlined in blue stitching as well.  You wash all the fabric, iron on the the adhesive, cut, peel the backing, and then iron it on the shirt.  I did the same thing for his tie on his bib for cake time.

 

Decor:
Another reason I really wanted it to be outside is because Pam and Kevin have a GORGEOUS backyard that needed very little decoration.  I focused on the inside table where the favors were and went for a few big things outside.  This was what people saw when they came in.  It held all the favors, a large picture of Owen, a set of balloons, the bulletin board with his 12 monthly pictures, and the sign in frame.

This is going to be framed in his room.  The whole thing is full of fabulous things people wrote to him:

For this display, I bought a bulletin board the the Habitat HomeStore for $1.  I spray painted the edge orange.  I hot glued fabric to the middle of the board since it was kinda in rough shape.  Then I cut out some triangles out of the scrapbooking paper I used throughout the party and glued them to a ribbon for the pennants.  Lastly, I just cut all the pictures the same size, rounded the edges, and glued them to the board. Such a fun way to see how he's grown this year.  I did the same pennants for his high chair for cake time.

Outside, there were of course balloons on the mailbox.  Then Jenna tied a balloon every so often along the porch banister.  She already had the great lights hung.  Then I made the large pom poms using Martha Stewart's directions.  I used 1 pack of tissue paper for each large pom pom and made 3 of each color.  $6 for a great punch of color!

Above the food table, I made a banner that said "Happy 1st Birthday Owen."  I cut out 2 sizes of circles and then let my Silhouette cut out the letters that I glued on top, then strung them on ribbon

This was one of my favorite decor pieces, and I'm wishing I would have hung it in a different place.  It kept turning, so I'm sure people didn't really see it.  Each circle was my favorite picture of Owen from each month of life. I hold punched the circles and tied them together with different colors of ribbon.

Favors:
The kids went home with 3 main things.  They had little blue tins from the Target dollar spot that held some of their goodies.  I used my Silhouette to cut out orange vinyl with their names.  Inside were crayons in the shape of O's (tutorial) and a coloring page of themselves (tutorial).

The next thing they had were the jars of homemade play-doh (tutorial).

For the adults, I used the same blue tins.  But they got all edible goodies because I couldn't see adults wanting the crayons. :)  I made caramel candies using this recipe.  They were fabulous, but warning, they take a REALLY long time to make and wrap!  Along with the caramels, they got some beautiful pretzels that were covered in chocolate in the colors of the day.  No, I did not make these.  I first saw them at Bella and found out that Andrea is a local gal who makes them.  The company is called PrepZelz by AnZee.  They were as tasty as they were pretty!

Of course, the host and hostess had their own large blue tin filled with the pretzels, wine, and a gift certificate.  Gotta love Pam and Kevin for sharing their beautiful home with us!

The Food:

I kept the menu very simple.  Although the people around me will tell you that I was definitely freaking out that we wouldn't have enough food.  But alas, all was well and bellies were full.  We did hot dogs and brats (which Kevin so graciously grilled), fruit and veggie trays, a few kinds of chips and this great Mexican dip.  We also did animal crackers, m&m's, and had stuff for smores around the fire pit, but it was much too hot.  For drinks, I borrowed my aunt's cute containers and we did lemonade, water, and of course had beer.  I had to bribe some of the husbands who were reluctant to come to a 1 year old birthday party.

 

Owen's cake was made by Pam and my sister and I don't think I could have ordered a more adorable one!  They took his invitation as inspiration and my sister free handed the lettering and piping.  Yeah, they're good.  Owen loved it too!

I made the cupcake display thing and like I said in that post, I decided to use box mixes for the cupcakes.  No one cared, especially the kids.

 

Games for the kiddos:

I know how important it is for kids to be kept busy at a party if the parents are going to have any fun as well.  So here were the things I had for the kids to do:

• large frisbees from the dollar section at Target
• kid golf set
• large blue bounce ball
• plastic horseshoe game
• water table - I  got this one on Craigslist for a great price.  He actually got one for a present, so this find is getting gifted to another friend!  This is the best picture of it.

• bounce house - An old friend that I used to teach with in Rantoul actually bought this for her family.  So I asked if I could just rent it from her!  Worked out great!  Even though Owen was a bit too small, it was the perfect size for all his friends, 9 of the 11 which were girls!

Ok, I'm sure I'm forgetting something. I'll do another post of his guests and all the great gifts he got. Even though I said NO gifts on the invite. Sheesh, people can't follow directions. ;)  It was an absoluetly fabulous day being surrounded by people who love us and Owen.  I am so thankful for such wonderful friends and family and I know Owen is going to grow up to be a better person because of all of their influence in his life.