Woodland Animal First Birthday Party

I love a first birthday party because the parent generally has control over the theme.  I saw this theme trawling through Pinterest one day and became obsessed!  I fell so in love with it that I started having regrets that I didn't use this as a nursery theme back when I was pregnant.  ANYWAYS...  I wanted a fun party with lots of activities for the kids and cute decor.  My son's birthday was in November so the perfect time of year for a forest-y theme.

No first birthday is complete without the requisite monthly picture banner and I found this banner on Etsy

Those who follow my blog know that I like useful favors in keeping with the theme.  I saw this idea on Pinterest and loved it!  S'mores snack bags with super cute personalized favor tags ordered on Etsy.  They got tons of compliments and were not $$$ to make.

I found lots of banners and cutouts at Hobby Lobby for decor and then ordered a personalized sign on Etsy and even found some cute balloons on Amazon to compliment the theme.  I think balloons can add to a kid's party- especially cute ones like these.

Everyone is into stations these days for food.... Candy buffets, Mimosa bars, you name it.  So I thought instead of having random snacks why not roll with the theme and create a Trail Mix Station.  People loved this idea and I was really pleased with how much use it got.

Side Note:  LABELS can go a long way.  You can call the food cute things to keep with your theme.  In this case I had 'bear poop' malt balls on a dessert table, 'campfire flame' cheetos, and 'Pond Scum punch' to drink.

I had a lot of kids attending this party and had just had so much success with the face-painting at the Avenger's party (along with lots of leftover face-paint) that I once again hit up Pinterest for how to create forest animal looks.  The kids loved it and I wish I wasn't so busy hosting that I had gotten a chance to take more pictures of the kids.  I also created a Scavenger hunt for the older kids to do outside and keep them from running wildly throughout the party and they enjoyed doing this and bringing back their lists for a candy prize.

The desserts for this event were a lot of fun to plan.  I found how-to instructions on the internet for making the fox smash cake and knew my mom was more than capable.  I also ordered cookie cutters on Amazon to make the deer and fox cookies and while baking and food decorating isn't my forte they got lots of compliments and an A for effort.

A very fun party to plan and lots of compliments from the guests.

Skunk face paint option

Avenger's 3rd Birthday

When my son decided on an Avenger's theme for his second birthday I was really excited because we had so many Avenger's toys I could incorporate into the party without spending any extra $$$.  This was one of the easiest and most fun kiddie parties I have planned. 

For favors I wanted something kids would actually use.  My biggest pet peeve about kid parties are the generic goodie bags filled with candy and let's face it- CRAP that most of us parents toss in the trash upon arriving home.  All those spinners and rings and spinning tops that kids play with for about 0.01 seconds and then toss aside.  I wanted favors in keeping with the theme but something kids could use and reuse.  So I thought- BOOKS!  The Little Golden books were very inexpensive on Amazon and in truth cost less than putting together a junk goodie bag would have.  I ordered cute favor tags on Etsy and even found some Avenger themed fruit snacks at Kmart.  Super cute!

Drink station in keeping with the theme

The thing I really wanted to focus on for this party was FUN!  Let's face it- 3 year olds don't care too much about decorations.  So I put most of my planning efforts into the games and entertainment portion of the party.  I went onto Pinterest and had my artistic mom learn how to do Avenger's face-painting.  I made a sheet of choices for the kids to choose from and it was a big hit!  I also found a company that had character's visit birthday parties and they had an Iron Man.  This was the highlight of the party.  Kids who didn't even know who he was were thrilled and left the party obsessed with Iron Man.  I also decided to have him play a few games with the kids so it wasn't just a quick picture meet and greet.  I made a Hulk Smash game using styrofoam cups covered in green tissue paper where the kids punched out a prize.  Then I drew a giant spider web on a piece of foam board and gave the kids a can of silly string and let them pretend to be Spiderman.  Both were huge hits!

Hulk and Iron Man Face Paint 

Close up of the Iron Man Face Paint 

Iron Man poses with the birthday boy

Hulk Smash game

Iron Man posing with some party guests

Shooting spiderwebs

Lastly, I figured that aside from having fun, kids probably care most about the yummy snacks.  I had my mom make a simple cake with the Avengers colors and symbols and I remembered making Frankenstein pudding cups for my kids at Halloween so I thought- why not call them Hulk pudding cups?! They look the same!  The kids loved them and the adults were impressed as well.

Overall a very fun and easy to replicate party!

Hulk pudding cups