First birthday parties are probably more for the moms than they are for the babies, but they are a lot of fun for the whole family. A lot goes into planning the first birthday party. Over the next week, I will go over all the little details of party planning, so you will be well prepared for your child’s very first birthday party.
One of the highlights for me was the decorating. I love to decorate, so I had a great time designing cupcakes, a custom birthday t-shirt, a sign, and decorating the house. I decided to go with cupcakes instead of a cake because I thought giving my son a cupcake would be a lot more practical and simple than giving him his very own cake. Plus, cupcakes are a big trend right now. I made them in two different flavors to accommodate the guests. Half of the cupcakes were carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and the other half were double chocolate. I borrowed a beautiful cupcake stand from a friend, which allowed me to creatively display my cupcakes in a unique tower. Cupcakes look good simple or extravagantly decorated. If you are not a baker, you can always order plain cupcakes from the bakery to decorate by yourself. Don’t want to do either? Leave the guilt at the front door and order your decorated cake or cupcakes from the bakery.
The t-shirt I designed for my son featured his name and the number one. I created the design on my computer and then printed a mirror image of the design onto iron on transfer paper. I bought a package of plain white t-shirts. They are thin but the transfer seems to stick well to the knit. They are also inexpensive, so you can always make two in case your child gets cake all over the first one!
You could go to the party store to buy the birthday sign for the kids, but you might end up spending too much money for what you get – and you might find it difficult to purchase a sign that matches your existing décor and party theme. It’s much more fun to make a sign out of old paper and scrapbook materials. I cut out rectangles from brown card stock and layered them with letters cut out from a few different blue patterned scrapbook papers to spell “Happy 1st Birthday!” Once your letters are made, you can string the letters together with yarn, string or ribbon, and hang the sign up over a doorway or large window. I saved my sign after the party so I could use it again. I could easily change the “1st” to “2nd” or remove it all together.
Decorating your house doesn’t have to be a big deal. Sometimes it’s the little things that have the biggest impact, like coordinating plates, napkins and cups. Rent a helium tank and fill the whole ceiling with balloons in your theme color. The kids will have a blast when they start to fall the next day. Cleanup is as simple as popping and tossing the balloons.
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