Baby's 1st Par-Tee
My baby turned 1 and it was definitely time to Par-Tee! What a year! I think every parent says that, especially when it's their first child. It's scary and overwhelming, but just to add more craziness to the situation my baby decided that he was ready for the world and was born 6 weeks early. We were lucky because everything (lungs, brain, heart...) was developed and healthy, but he was just tiny and couldn't maintain his body temperature. He was in the NICU for 10 days... the longest 10 days of my entire life. He came home and decided to be the perfect baby... at least in my eyes. Come to find out he is just an overachiever. He rolled over early, started talking early, walked early, and now runs/throws/kicks.... early! He keeps me very busy, but I will say that he is consistently happy. I have never been so happy or felt so lucky in my entire life. It really is amazing how much you can love another human.
Enough about my obsession with parenthood... now to the Par-Tee! I was trying to figure out what to do as a theme and I have to give my mom credit on this one. She saw the idea on Pinterest and it snowballed from there! I'm in love with the company Chickabug! Most of my decorations and inspiration was from that site. Heather is the owner and also the person I was emailing with and she couldn't be nicer! I needed some last minute orders from her and she accommodated without a problem. Check out the Chickabug site for TONS of inspiration. What I love is that you can order them as "printables" and print out as many as you need. For instance the banner... last minute we decided it was a good idea to hang one outside too and instead of having to order another one I was able to print it myself. They have so many fun ideas for birthdays and celebrations. I also ordered some Halloween stickers that I had printed through them and they turned out so cute. I'm overly excited to use them soon. I love that they do also offer to print and send items to you. I did that for our invitations. I thought that they would look better professionally done and I was very happy with the outcome. It all depends on how much time you can/want to put into it. Here are some pictures to share with anyone looking to do a golf themed party!!
Here is a picture from the Chickabug website of the invitations I chose.
I loved the idea of the 19th hole aka the bar! For drinks we had red wine, white wine, beer, and then for a fun cocktail we had "Arnold Palmers" (iced tea and lemonade) and next to it we had vodka you could add into it to make a "John Daly." Apparently, if you know about golf, he is a professional golfer who is known for drinking so it was a playful joke.
These were the water bottle labels from Chickabug that I printed and cut myself
This is the banner that I ordered from Chickabug and cut out... it was great because we put another one outside and I printed out "Grant" to attach to his highchair. Make sure you have enough printer ink on hand!
My mom had this playful idea to make these tissue puffs look like golf balls on a tee. She ordered these soccer horns and then glued the puffs onto the upside-down horn. Then, placed them into a flower pot filled with sand. Start with wet sand at the bottom then top with fresh sand for a prettier finish.
This sign was ordered from Zazzle and we were really happy with how it turned out. It made for a perfect backdrop for the dessert area and where Grant had his first smash cake!
For dessert I made chocolate cupcakes with a buttercream icing and "snowball" cookies that I thought would give that "golf ball" look to the table. For the buttercream icing I used green food coloring and a "grass" frosting tip... you can get it at a baking supply or craft supply store. Making "grass" icing is very very simple it just looks time-consuming. Then I topped the cupcakes with these cute printable circles from Chickabug that we glued onto popsicle sticks (those you can get at a craft supply or Amazon)!
Here is the beginning of the smash cake! (recipe here)
Grant had an amazing time at his party!! The cute bib was a gift from my mother-in-law from Mud Pie.
We ordered the plates, bowls, straws, and cupcake holders from Oriental Trading.
A huge thank you to Chickabug for all of the fun decorations! I also had a huge banner up of Grant's monthly pictures from newborn to 1 year that tuned out soooo cute, but after all of the craziness I realized I didn't take a picture of it BUT I recommend doing it for a 1 year old party because they change so much in that year and it's really fun to see and display the growth! (here's the link)