We cannot believe Blair is now a toddler! It truly feels like yesterday we were just bringing him home from the hospital. Alas, here we are; newborn-less and two kids chasing each other around the house. Here’s a look at Blair’s First Birthday!
It is so unlike me to not take photos. I was so busy setting up and then having fun, I forgot to capture our decorations in the room! So here’s the best I can do.
We did way too much for Liam’s First Birthday. We made all the food and all the decorations. Granted, we kept the party small in order to fit into our apartment, so there wasn’t too much, but it was still like feeding two rounds of Thanksgivings. We stretched ourselves a little too much. Then again, we had so much energy back then…haha. However, we learned from our experience and we just focused on the details that made sense for Blair’s party. After all, the first birthday is for the parents, right?
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Blair’s First Birthday
The overall theme was “Bears.” The invites, cake, gift bags all had this bear theme. Our color scheme used olive, tan, and cream colors in the balloons and decorations.
For Blair’s first birthday, we wanted to open that invite list up. Unfortunately, we cannot host 50 people in our apartment, so we looked for local establishments. The tldr is we couldn’t find any. Restaurants wanted to start with a $2,000 “space fee” before even talking about food; out of control! I kept looking.
I stumbled upon a room at our local library. For a nominal fee you can rent out the room. The library was our escape in the peaks of the pandemic. It was a safe space we could go to outside our apartment and the kids could play, read books, and it felt like a nice escape. So, it was fitting, we were hosting Blair’s birthday there.
We bought the food from a local spot in town. Decorations were bought locally and also shipped from Amazon. The only things we DIY’d were the center pieces and the photo booth wall…so much easier. The most stressful part of all this was getting to the Library and having only an hour to set everything up (and pray the balloons would be delivered).
Photo Booth
If you’re a regular here, you know we love a photo booth. When we first saw the library room, the first I question I asked was where we wanted to put the photo booth. I wanted to keep it simple. However, simple evolved into a custom backdrop. Totally ok, but I needed to figure out how I would build this in the one hour we had to set everything up. I decided to pre-build the backdrop in two sections and hang it up at the library. I will definitely be doing this again!
To build the backdrop, I bought paper pom poms, lanterns, and fans in our olive/tan color scheme. Using a large sheet of packing paper (found in an Amazon package), I starting taping the paper decorations. I loved how it turned out! I was a little nervous about transporting it, but it all worked out!
The photo booth was a hit! After the party, I took the photos and sent them around with our thank you notes on the back.
Gift Bags
We were expecting about ten to fifteen kids at the party, ranging from newborns to eight year-olds. We split the favors into two groups: two years old and younger and everyone else. If kids were two or younger, they received a little book! And if they were older, they got cooler snacks and toys like bubbles or bouncy balls.
The gift bags were…a bear face! We filled them with bear things or things that started with ‘B’:
Themed Plates and Napkins
A bear-themed party would not be complete without bear-themed plates and napkins. These were too cute:
Cake
Growing up, I would have a bear shaped cake for my birthday. Mostly in the style of my favorite stuffed animal, Teddy, who, fun fact: currently lives with us. I don’t know how many bear cakes my mom made for me, but I think it was a lot because when anyone in my family saw Blair’s cake, they said it reminded them of my bear birthday cakes! All I wanted was for the bear to be green like our balloons, but it came out cerulean! My color mixing skills need to get better, but all that mattered is that the cake still tasted great.
P.S. I gave up on Wilton gels and moved to Ann Clark.
I also made some cupcakes and stuck them with these glitter bears.
Tables
This is just worth it’s own section because I will only every buy a box of tablecloths. When I was looking for plastic tablecloths, I couldn’t find anything cheaper than $80 for all the tables. Then I saw this roll of plastic tablecloth for $26 and it just made sense.
Tent
My biggest missed photo regret? Capturing the tent and floor mat. We wanted a safe, shoe-free space for smaller kids and infants to play. This green mat paired with the tent made a cute little space. Special shoutout to one amazing auntie ‘M’ and papa for putting the tent together in record time!
Other Birthday Decorations
- Balloons – they really know how to fill a space. We learned that with Liam’s first birthday. We filled the room with cream, sage, and tan balloons. For a little sparkle, our “1” balloon was a rose gold.
- ‘Happy Birthday’ balloon sign
- Tassels – these took forever to put together, but I did them all. I even put them on strings. When I was setting up for the party, I pulled each one out and they fell off the strings, haha! I gave up and just lumped them around the gift table.
