For my godson's 1st Birthday we were set on a lion theme. We went to Ikea and scored on some really fun and colorful decor ideas like these inexpensive circle bath rugs, kids furniture and fun toys. The color theme was orange, blue, green and brown...
I thought it would be cool to have a jungle/rainforest kind of feeling in the buffet area but didn't want to over do it so I mounted some display shelves that I had lion around (hee hee), added some faux vines and some furry friends that would go home with the birthday boy. I love the monkey business! (tip: velcro works for hanging everything!)
Ikea had really cute and affordable table sets, fun stools and rugs...
The biggest score was this cardboard puppet show frame! It was the hit of the party because I took photos of all the guests using this frame. See some of these fun jungle pics here. The design even matched what I had done for the invitation!
I always make sure there is plenty of colorful food! We had baked mac n' cheese, wings, dino chicken nuggets, fruits, veggies, pita chips, salad, and of course my favorite, chocolate covered strawberries! (Thanks hubby for always making these for me!). For the buffet arrangements, again Ikea hooked me up with colorful bamboo canes and faux tropicals. Super easy... just place them casually in a container.
The local grocery bakery transposed the invitation artwork onto a regular vanilla sheet cake with raspberry filling, yum-o! Next time I will give them a better image... they kinda didn't follow my instructions (note the big area that is cut out), but it still looked cute!
For a 1st birthday ritual, I created a "Wishing Tree" inspired by the Tea Collection blog. This activity was great because it served as a guestbook and a keepsake! I asked guests to write well wishes and sentiments for Isaiah on these wood veneer tags that I found at the craft store. The tree consisted of some curly willow in my umbrella vase that was draped in green fabric.
This is another keepsake! "A Year in the Life of Isaiah" was made of a black magnet dry erase board and 12 clear top metal tins. I simply cut out a photo from each month of Isaiah's first year and affixed magnet strips on the back side. The tins and board can both be used again.
Our birthday party game was called "Isaiah Can Do" and party goers had to guess from a list which things Isaiah could do Now or would do Later. The most correct answers won a prize but there was a tie and a healthy debate between two aunties ensued as to the details of one of the items... it was hilarious! There were some older kids at the party too, so for them I had temporary animal tattoos, finger puppets and markers for them to draw portraits of Isaiah.
The take home gift was my favorite part of the party! My friend took this awesome photo of Isaiah on her shoulders, which was inspired by a photo I gave her along time ago before she was even pregnant. I designed a Thank You card and had it developed as a photo so it would serve as a card and a keepsake photograph. Using clear acrylic boxes, I inserted the photo and filled the boxes with inexpensive animal crackers and tied a raphia bow. They looked so cute!!! We really did have some wild fun!
