Since the
first birthday is kind of a big one, we knew we wanted to do a party for our
family to celebrate with Landen. Before we even started the construction on our
house I knew I didn’t want to have the party there. It would be just too
stressful to plan for all those people AND get the house “company ready”. When
the party was 6 months out we went to Lakewood City Hall and reserved a local
private park for the celebration. It books up quickly so we went as soon as we
were able.
I was having
a hard time getting excited about the party because I couldn’t settle on a
theme. We wanted to incorporate some Disney (of course) but didn’t want it to
be too over the top. Landen didn’t really have a favorite movie or book or
anything so he wasn’t any help. :) After
cycling through a few possibilities I finally thought of doing a Jungle Book theme
and all of the sudden things “clicked”! I had it all planned within days.
I asked John
to put together an invitation that had a jungle/safari theme. I told him he
could do whatever he wanted. We did a photoshoot with Landen than did NOT go
well but we got a few good ones. He just never stops moving these days so we
couldn’t get him to sit still and smile. Stinker. Here are some outtakes:
John did his
magic though and came up with this adorable invitation:
I made labels
for the envelopes and we also included a little insert that had information
about the park.
Since the
room at the park was a bit boring we wanted to jazz it up a bit. We knew we only had an hour to get everything
set up and we couldn’t hang anything on the walls so we were creative in
thinking of ways to decorate. I made
everything ahead of time so it was just a matter of getting it all out before
guests arrived. We had the help of our
families, which made it all come together!
(Photo bomb ahead
…)
Mockup of
table centerpieces with animal eraser “confetti”
I made poster
boards with pictures of Landen to put behind the tables. Since we couldn’t hang anything on the walls
I figured this would be the next best thing to cover them. The first two have Landen’s monthly pictures
through the first year, the next is misc pictures of Landen and the
extended family, and the last has
pictures of our little family.
Blurry gift
table pic with goodie bags for the kids
Note from Landen inside bags
Cupcake table
The food!
My Dad made the tongue for the snake. :)
Coloring
table for the kids, Landen’s high chair, and a giant monkey!
The tables
(the kids went nuts and tore the tables apart almost immediately so luckily we
took pictures right before everyone got there)
We even hung
a few animal print paper lanterns out on the patio for folks who went outside
to play.
Everyone
seemed to have a good time. There was a
ton of extra food (Subway WAY over-estimated how much food we would need for
our size group) but it’s better to have too much than not enough. Landen was overwhelmed by all the people and
the noise but he did ok. Luckily my Mom
held him while he took a good nap before everyone arrived. Without that sleep it would have been a
disaster.
Landen
finally had some lunch and then it was cake time!! He wasn’t interested in the cupcake much at
all (texture aversions still) but he had a taste at least.
After
cupcakes the party was over so we got everything cleaned up and packed in the
cars. We couldn’t have done it all without our families. They were rock stars!!
After we got
home and unloaded everything, my Mom stayed to help put everything away while
Landen napped. We finally had a little
time to relax!! We decided to invite the
grandparents back over for leftovers and to watch Landen open his presents. We didn’t have time to open them at the party
and we knew it would be too overwhelming for him anyways. Opening them at home with just us was
PERFECT!! We took pictures of him
opening each one and included them in his thank you notes. Landen is one blessed little boy! Here are just a couple of pictures:
Finally, it
was time to collapse!! The day was a
total success and we were completely exhausted.
Landen and John had the energy to make funny faces at me through the
window though!
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