Hello all, Ami here! Recently our little girl turned one. I know every parent says this, but how is she already a year old! This past year went by so fast.
When planning a first birthday it can be hard for some parents to think of a theme. Your little one doesn’t quite have specific interest at this age, except for chewing on anything and everything. Playing off the number one is probably the most common way to go. Some theme ideas for a first birthday are: Wild One, Winter or Woodland ONEderland, Time Fly’s (airplanes), Little Pumpkin (fall birthdays), Storybook, Disney, etc.
For our daughter’s birthday I decided to do a floral theme to match the décor of her room and it also went along with the look of her monthly photos I had been taking. Her name is Sadie and we call her SadieBug, so I decided to add hints of ladybugs throughout the party to play off her nickname.
When deciding on a date and time, take into consideration your little one’s schedule. Sadie is still on a two nap schedule so we decided to plan the party between her morning and afternoon nap. Because of this the party was during lunch time so it was important we had food available.
Food
For the menu I decided to keep it fresh and light since it was an August afternoon. For the adults I made a panzanella salad that featured tomatoes and basil from our garden. It is so easy to make and was a huge hit at the party. The salad was paired with chicken skewers topped with pesto, garlic-herb shrimp and fruit salad garnished with mint. Now that you have the menu planned, don’t forget about the beverages! Your adult friends and family are very kind taking time out of their day to spend it at a kids birthday and to thank them I like to have some adult beverages available for them to enjoy. No need to go overboard, keep it simple. For this particular party we had beer, hard seltzers and some La Croix for the non drinkers.
For the kids I kept it simple and put out a platter of our kid’s favorite items. PB&J sandwiches, squeezy packs, string cheese and juice boxes. When planning a kids birthday party you need to make sure you have kid friendly food.
Invitation
I ordered the invitations from Dusty Lilac Paperie off of Etsy. She was great to work with and able to help me personalize one of her previous designs to match my theme and add the ladybug accent. I am so happy with how the invitation turned out!
Decorations
When planning a party like this I recommend having one area where you can really showcase the theme. You don’t necessarily have to decorate an entire room, rather have one focus area. In my house I have a credenza in the dinning room that is perfect for this. I like to create a backdrop on the wall behind the table and then display the cake, dessert, food etc. on the credenza. Our dining table is right in front of the credenza and allows for additional space.
For Sadie’s party I was going for a very girly look with soft pinks and greenery. I decided to buy artificial greenery so I could reuse it in my house for fall décor. I found some gold glitter ladybugs on Amazon that were perfect for adding the little touches of ladybugs throughout the party. I had a vision for large bloom flowers to decorate the wall behind the cake table and finally settled on making large tissue paper flowers. I was very happy with how they turned out and they were fairly easy to make. Pinterest has several tutorials on how to make them. The gold “One” cake topped and highchair banner can be found here. Last but not least I needed an adorable dress for the birthday girl to wear. I wanted something simple and girly and found the prefect mauve tutu dress. I completed the look with the floral headband she wore for her newborn photos and all her monthly photos. The headband is from Bailey’s Blossoms and I absolutely adore their stuff.
In my opinion every first birthday should have an area that displays their monthly photos. It’s so fun to look at the photos and see how they have changed over their first year. To continue with the theme I hung a piece of garland horizontally and used clothes pins to attach the photos to the garland. I of course had a few ladybugs mixed in. The best part about having these pictures printed is that you can add them to their baby book after the party.
Favors
Favors are always nice to hand out to your guests and thank them for coming and celebrating with you. I like to give practical items that the kids will actually use. For the little ones I included Mum-Mum biscuits, fruit squeezy pack and some bath toys. For the kids that were a little older I included fruit snacks, cheddar bunnies and a paint set. For the favors I usually like to play off the theme for the party, but this one was a little more difficult to do that with. Kids don’t really care to get flowers :). However if you were doing a theme like this for a baby or bridal shower you could hand our little potted flowers, herbs or succulents. The Dollar Store is a great place to get favors and I have found a lot of great items there for only a dollar! I also got the plates, napkins, silverware and tissue paper for the flowers there.
The Cake
Now lets get to the most important part of any birthday party, the cake! I made two cakes for this party, Sadie’s smash cake and another cake to cut and serve to the guests. A smash cake is a must for every first birthday. It doesn’t have to be big. I used a 4″ cake, but you could even have a special decorated cupcake. I am personally a fan of the small cakes. For the guest cake we used our Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp Cake. This was a cake we had been wanting to make for a very long time and we couldn’t have picked a better time to unveil our new cake flavor. It was a HUGE hit! You can visit our post about this cake for all the details and the recipe. I wanted Sadie’s cake to be a little more simple since it was her first time eating cake. I made the same cake but didn’t add the crumble crust to the cake or the strawberry rhubarb compote filling. Don’t go to crazy with the smash cake flavors since this is most likely the first time your little one is having a sugary treat like this. I also wouldn’t recommend making a cake/frosting that has a large amount of food coloring since they will be eating it by hand and probably smearing it all over their face.
Last but not least, don’t forget about thank you cards for any guests that brought a present. Something simple and thoughtful that your guests will be sure to appreciate, and who doesn’t like receiving mail!
We hope you enjoyed this post and gave you some inspiration for a party you are planning. Feel free to leave a comment or question.
Such great ideas, but the star of this post of course is Sadie! Happy Birthday little one.
Thank you, Karrie!