First of all, I can't believe my little guy turned 1! It is truly amazing how fast time flies. Our current football location has us situated a little further from family compared to our last school. However, we are closer to my parents and friends in the town where I grew up. I was on the fence about what to do for Bo's birthday being that we are further from majority of family and he won't remember this party, but I just couldn't bring myself to not having a party for him because his sister had quite the fiesta for her first birthday . In addition, I am a second child and I have spent a lifetime of giving my parents a hard time for "loving" my brother more than me (I know that is not true and my parents have done a phenomenal job spreading the love evenly). However, as a parent I like to try to keep the playing fields even. Plus, I just love an excuse to entertain friends and family. Below is an inside look at the party planning process for Bo's first birthday.
1. Nail down a theme.
This is one of the most challenging aspects of party planning for me. Pinterest has opened up so many doors for selecting a theme and its hard to choose one with all of the cute options. I like to be inspired by Pinterest, but I still put my own twists on the theme. I had my daughter help choose the theme. Originally, we chose trucks, but then after browsing Pinterest we decided to go with Winter ONEderland. This theme was perfect for the lovely Chicago winter that we have. We have many years left that we can do a truck theme, but ONEderland is only once in a lifetime ... no brainer!
In November, my Pinterest board started for Bo's Winter ONEderland party. I am a little crazy, but I like my guests to be surprised when they arrive so I keep my party boards private. There are a few people that I allow into my inner circle when planning a party: my mom, mother-in-law, my friend Becky, and my friend Sara. That is because they are valuable resources. I am a party planner that enjoys coordinating and firmly believes in using my resources especially when it comes to food.
Here's the link to my Pinterest board (it is now unlocked for your enjoyment).
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In November, my Pinterest board started for Bo's Winter ONEderland party. I am a little crazy, but I like my guests to be surprised when they arrive so I keep my party boards private. There are a few people that I allow into my inner circle when planning a party: my mom, mother-in-law, my friend Becky, and my friend Sara. That is because they are valuable resources. I am a party planner that enjoys coordinating and firmly believes in using my resources especially when it comes to food.
Here's the link to my Pinterest board (it is now unlocked for your enjoyment).
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2. Set a date, create guest list, and invite.
Bo's birthday fell in the middle of the week mid-January. The first thing I did was contact grandparents to see when would work best for their schedule because they are VIP. After nailing down a date, I developed a guest list. This was a little difficult being that it is a winter party that we were hosting at our house (we were limited on space). I went with an open house atmosphere for the party that allowed guests to come and go as they pleased within the party time frame. This seemed to be a no pressure approach and helped with our friends who have little ones with nap times.
I love evite! It is so easy to create an invitation and send to all of your guests via email. I also enjoy how it manages the guest list and allows communication back and forth. Plus, I am so terrible at remembering to buy stamps. Here's a glimpse of our evite.
I love evite! It is so easy to create an invitation and send to all of your guests via email. I also enjoy how it manages the guest list and allows communication back and forth. Plus, I am so terrible at remembering to buy stamps. Here's a glimpse of our evite.
3. Prepare for the party!
First, my budget conscious self (contrary to my husband's belief) likes to take inventory of the house to see what I already have that will go with the party theme. My party colors were red, aqua, and a splash of lime green. Items I already had included: red plates, red napkins, silverware, serving trays and dishes, lime green christmas trees, large decorative snowflakes, ribbon, and mugs for the hot chocolate bar. In my head, I already saved us loads of money. Haha!
Next, I determined that my focus for the party would be the dessert table. I wanted to do the candy bar with cookies, cakes, cupcakes, and cake pops that were fit for the theme. With Christmas in the middle of my party planning, I wanted to be somewhat prepared in advance. I visited Oriental Trading Company's website and purchased red swirl lollipops, blue rock candy pops, red gummy bears, and shimmer blue chocolate candies. I was able to take advantage of the pre-Christmas sales and free shipping (again saving us money). These candies were my accent pieces for the dessert table. The Dollar Tree is typically one of the first stops for me when planning a party. I visited our Dollar Tree and found small snow flakes ornaments, clips to hang the pictures, and togo penguin bags. The city that I live in has a mom's Facebook group that is also a wealth of knowledge and can be very useful. Through this group, I found a local mom to make personalize cookies. I contacted Leanne of Leanne's Cookies and placed an order for the cookies about a month before the party. I provided her with a picture of what I was hoping for and she did an excellent job creating meeting my wishes. The cookies were a big hit and everyone was quite impressed by the intricate cookies. So that's about all that I completed before Christmas, and then the party went on the back burner for a few weeks. Then all of a sudden time slipped away from me and I had about a week and a half till game day (the big party). For the most part, I felt pretty good with what I had already accomplished. My mom found some cool Snowman Graham Cracker Cookies at Aldi and picked up a few packs for me. She also responded to my request to find penguin cheddar crackers (she found them at Wal Mart). Most importantly, she hooked me up with the best cake pops ever from a lady she knows. The cake pops were DELICIOUS and a HUGE hit! There were snowman, penguin, and snowflake cake pops. In addition to the tastiness, the cake pops were a great decor piece. I phoned my dear friend, Sara, and asked if she would be interested in creating a delicious cupcake for the spread. Without hesitation, she jumped at the opportunity. She is extremely gifted in this area and doesn't make out of the box cupcakes. Within minutes, she sent me a pin of hot cocoa cupcakes. Delicious and a perfect compliment to the hot cocoa bar! During my weekly scavenger hunt at Goodwill, I found 10 red Ikea frames for $.99 each. This is exactly what I needed to polish off the party decor. Woohoo! My party prep excitement level just went up! I also scored a few glass jars of various sizes to compliment the ones I already had. Again, I paid very little for these additions so I still believe I saved us money. I have these conversations in my head to justify the money that I am spending. On my way home from Goodwill, I stopped by Mariano's to put in an order for the cakes: one small round cake, a medium round cake, and a smash cake for Bo. I didn't find it necessary to get a large cake that would feed everyone because of all the other desserts that were available. |
Now, it's the day before the party. First, I used one of my favorite programs, PicMonkey, to design display cards and birthday signs (See below). Then I ran around to pickup the remaining supplies that I felt I needed which didn't happen to be too much (powdered donuts, Twizzlers, pictures of Bo). Once I returned home, I setup as much as I could for the party; however, I have two children that have tornado-like characteristics which made it somewhat difficult. I felt like I setup four different times redoing what they had undone.
The day of party means game day! This means clean, clean, clean, and keep the children away from the party display. Oh wait ... have I mentioned I am a football wife and that means my husband is gone on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings for recruiting purposes. So I called in for back-up... thank God for a great support system. My friend (more like a sister), Becky, came and entertained the kids while my parents helped me finish up any last minute items on the todo list. My in laws picked up the cakes from Marianos. Crazy, but everything was ready to go two hours before the party. I thank my "resources" for that. I am sure I would have been fine on my own, but I probably would have been a tad bit frazzled.
My husband came home from football and helped finish some odds and ends jobs. He also placed an order for pizza and went picked it up in time for the party. He also picked up a few of the caesar salad mixes to make salad with the pizza. I was thankful he took control of this area because I was focused on the "cute" food.
With time to spare, I decided to implement the photo booth I had originally wanted with supplies I had at home: iPad, black table cloth, Command strips, a stool, and a lot of random dress up items in our home. With the help of the app,Pocketbooth, we had our very own photo booth in our hallway all for $.99! I used my daughter's easel to direct guest up to the photo booth. The app allows you to order prints, print on your own, save the images. I chose to post the photo strips to Facebook for everyone to see.
My husband came home from football and helped finish some odds and ends jobs. He also placed an order for pizza and went picked it up in time for the party. He also picked up a few of the caesar salad mixes to make salad with the pizza. I was thankful he took control of this area because I was focused on the "cute" food.
With time to spare, I decided to implement the photo booth I had originally wanted with supplies I had at home: iPad, black table cloth, Command strips, a stool, and a lot of random dress up items in our home. With the help of the app,Pocketbooth, we had our very own photo booth in our hallway all for $.99! I used my daughter's easel to direct guest up to the photo booth. The app allows you to order prints, print on your own, save the images. I chose to post the photo strips to Facebook for everyone to see.