Caleb's First Birthday - Part Two

As I mentioned earlier, months of on-and-off planning went into the party.  I think I had decided on the theme by January!  Pinterest was of course my best friend throughout the process, but I designed the invitations and envelope labels (which unfortunately I don't have a pictures of), cupcake toppers, straw flags, banners, and food labels myself in Publisher and just printed them myself, which saved a ton of money!  Here are some of my favorite details of the party ...

This was the welcome wagon that greeted you as you walked up the driveway.  We had a couple of the sock monkeys, but bought the blue ones at Target.  I made the pinwheels with scrapbook paper and skewers, and like I said, just designed and printed the "welcome" banner myself.

 I thought the little red wagon full of drinks tied in nicely with the sock monkey theme.

I bought the striped straws at a local store, and made the straw flags.

 The goodie buckets were filled with a monkey sippie cup, bubbles, beach ball, and party blower.

I decided to have guests sign the "Happy Birthday to You" Dr. Seuss book instead of a traditional guest book.

 The backdrop was a couple yards of fabric and some blown up prints taped to foam board of Caleb with balloons, going after a cake, and the one in the red wagon that was used on his invitations.

 The food turned out great!  We had chicken salad and pimento cheese sandwiches from Ouslers, Chick-fil-a nuggets, my mom's pasta salad, fruit kabobs, chips and a couple dips, and a veggie tray.  The party was at 2 so we ended up having a lot more food than we needed.

 For dessert, we had cupcakes, s'more pops, monkey cake pops, and banana pudding.  On the dessert table, there was a banner of a picture of Caleb for each of the twelve months.

 My talented friend at Louise's Cakes and Things made the smash cake, cupcakes, and monkey pops.  They were super cute and very tasty!

 I had two wreaths hanging on the french doors from our carport that said Happy Birthday and had a yard-wrapped 1.

 The table decorations consisted of lanterns with sock monkeys and the pinwheels I made.

Overall, a lot of hard work went into the party, but it was totally worth it!  I couldn't have done it without the a whole slew of people helping with decorations and food, yards and flower beds, setup, take down, etc.  In the next few days, I promise a blog with updates on Caleb and what he is doing at a year!