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