I cannot believe it has been a year already. There have been so many lows and so many highs. Being a new mom and running two businesses has been the hardest thing I have done, pretty much ever.
I knew for his birthday party I wanted to keep it pretty low-key with family and just a couple friends at the house. To say the least I have only ever been to one other one year olds birthday party and that was eight years ago. I didn't know protocol or how to do anything, both my husband and myself are actually pretty shy humans so the idea that Kett is only one and most of the attention would be on us was a pretty daunting task. But I persevered and it went off like a bang.
We did a BBQ buffet of my husbands own smoked pork and sausage, some veggies, some sides and some cheese plates. I knew I wanted to keep it as simple as possible, even though Frank wanted more and he did at more, he calls them ABTs (atomic buffalo turds) and they are his favorite to grill. Also my favorite to eat but don't tell him that.
We made a cocktail drink, some tea, some lemon water and bought some beer. There were only two other small kids at his party so we knew we could get a little bit more risky when it came to the drinks.
The party theme was space related, I can't get past the space theme with him, it is my favorite and I keep going with it. I am sure when he is older he will want some tv themed party but for now I am going to stick with Space! In plus we love science in this house. I got these two matching shirts from Lark Rising on Etsy.
I wanted a cute backdrop for his cake smash so I did my research and stuck to the small budget I had in mind. White sparkly fringe backdrops you can find here, definitely double up on these, I read the reviews and am so glad I did! The sparkles star garland I also found here. I knew I wanted a balloon display so I got those at the local party store. My biggest concern was what am I going to do with all these extra balloons.
I hate to pay for balloon weights I think its such a waste of money, so I decided to make them my party favor bags!! What kid doesn't want to go home with a goodie bag full of candies and some balloons! That way I am not stuck with all these balloons at the end of the day and the kids will most definitely enjoy them more at their own homes!
In total we had 5 kids comes, ages 5 months, 1, 2, 5 and 6 and I am pretty sure they all loved taking home their balloons and bags of candy that all had a space theme to it! Originally I was going to set up a little paint your own rocket station with the rockets you see on the table, you can find them here. But since we had such a low key party I decided to paint them myself similar to the invites and decorations I did. But I'll keep that idea for the future. I mean how cute would a paint your own anything station be for kids??
Cutting the cake was fun, I recommend going with white icing, because the navy blue pretty much gave everyone a blue mouth! Also the next morning gave Kett a nice blue butt! I ended up giving him a bath during the party to get all the blue off of his face hands arms legs every crevice a child puts icing, you know... as a mom I am sure you know! The navy blue I went with though did look really cute in the photos so I can't hate on it too much.
We had outdoor games set up and tons of seating. It was just a fun few hours to gather family and friends and celebrate the fact that we survived a whole year! I still am blown away by that.
Happy Birthday little dude!! We love you so much!