My William turned one on April 1st. It was a mixed-emotion event. My heart strings tug when I think about my chubby baby becoming a “kid,” and I get overjoyed at the thought that one day my babes won’t want to join me when I go to the bathroom. Yeah, that’ll be awhile.
Anywho, I felt that a celebration was in order. Not only to celebrate his first full year in our world, but to celebrate how far I’ve come in this past year. He can now sit up and crawl and has a few snaggly teeth, I can now enter a Target with two kids without having heart palpitations. It’s been a big year.
We picked the theme “Thing 2 is Turning 1.” I happen to love Dr. Seuss and there happened to be a lot of supplies with the theme on the market due to the release of the Lorax. Win-win.
Here are a few ideas that I came up with and a few borrowed from my fellow bloggers and pinners. Also, a huge shout-out to my fellow mom-pal, Catherine, who happened to have a huge stock of red and aqua supplies. She kinda rocked my Dr. Seuss world!
For the Food:
I kept it simple (everything but the hot dogs was made in advance) but kept everything within the Dr. Seuss theme. We served: Roast Beast (hot dogs), Truffula Trees (roasted broccoli), Poodles Eating Noodles (pasta salad), Three Cheese Trees, Red Fish Blue Fish (colored gold fish), Green Eggs and Ham (pretzels with white chocolate and green candies, The Cat’s Hats (oreo cookies with icing and gummy savers), and Thing 2 cupcakes.
Booze was important for me to serve. I mean really… Isn’t a one-year-old’s birthday party for the adults? In addition to the Pink Ink Yink Drink and Goose Juice (punch for the kids), I had Sneetch Drink (mix rum with the punch) and Cindy Lou Who Booze (flavored moonshine). We also had beer and wine, which I was too lazy to give a fancy name to. 😉
The Cake-Eating: My kid can SERIOUSLY throw back a cake. I swear he ate most of the two layer thing himself. This was a priceless moment. If you’re considering whether or not doing it, just go for it. It was HILARIOUS.
The Extras:
Photo Frame: I took a cheap-o frame that I got at Home Goods and repainted it blue and red. I had a Thing 2 wig and the Cat’s Hat for families to take photos with. It was pretty darn cute.
Pool Pit: Need a place to throw a bunch of non-walkers? How ’bout a blow-up pool with balls in it? The babes had a blast. As you can see from the picture a few were able to escape. Luckily, mine hadn’t accomplished that skill.
Guest book: I had an, “Oh The Places You’ll Go” book for guests to sign. I think I might bring that out at his future birthday parties too, to chronicle the wishes we have for Will as he goes along.
Party Favors: I kept it simple – baggies with blue candies and red Swedish Fish, going along with the whole fish in the fish bowl concept from the Cat in The Hat.
To those that came to Will’s Birthday bash, a super big thank you. I realize that the party was about four weeks ago and I have yet to get Thank You notes out. If it makes you feel any better, the stationary and stamps are staring at me right now!!! I’m the worst with getting cards out…. If only someone could write a post on simplifying that process….
So, I woke up at 4:30 am this morning, after not being able to sleep and decided to get on Pinterest to check out Dr. Seuss party ideas for my little Ethan’s 1st b-day coming up in August…yes, yes, I know it’s like 2 1/2 months away, but a mom needs to plan in advance. Anyway, after much looking around and pinning I decided to pretty much steal all (or almost all) your ideas. I think your sons’ 1st b-day party was cute and well balanced…plus it doesn’t seem like it can be too expensive like some of the others I’ve seen. And after wanting to start my own blog for a while now, I’m really thankful you have…and I decided to post a “thank you”. Your post will really help me out!
Thanks Josefina! This is the nicest comment I’ve ever received! Good luck with your party and Happy Birthday to Ethan!