Time to Party, One Year Old style

Birthday parties for one year olds are always fun. It's such an exciting milestone. Guests always seem so happy to be celebrating, the babies are so cute in their first birthday outfits, and you can't get any better than smash cakes - I mean really!

I decided to go with a carnival theme for the boys. Carnivals and summertime go really well together. I wanted something that was going to be fun for decorations and for entertainment for the party guests. It was perfect. My good friend Amanda at Tu-Tu Cute Creations by Amanda made the invitations and other paper crafts for the party.

Aren't these invites to die for? I also had matching Thank You cards and a gorgeous welcome sign. 

Unfortunately it was blazing hot on the day of the party, so although there were lots of activities planned, most of us spent our time battling the heat. Thankfully some of the older kids took advantage of the carnival games so it wasn't a total loss.

Ring Toss was by far my most favorite carnival game. My mom is AWESOME at it so I have many fond memories of her winning my brother and I some huge stuffed animals. So of course I had to have a ring toss game at our carnival. I used an old gift box and filled it with beer bottles we had been saving for the event (Adam: "You need beer bottles for the boys' party? Oh, I can help with that!") I bought a cheap pack of shower curtain rings at Target to use for the rings.  Easy squeezy.

For Tin Can Alley, I tore off the labels from some cans of veggies I saved and I made some bean bags from fleece and filled them with rice. (Adam: "Wouldn't that technically make them rice bags and not bean bags?" ... details, details... ) Signs courtesy of Tu-Tu Cute Creations by Amanda.

I wanted to do face painting, but I scratched that off the list when I realized the temperature would be in the high 90s. Heat, face paint and a bunch of under 5 year olds didn't sound like a good plan.

There was a piñata the size of my daughter... literally. It was really big. I was smart enough to know it was going to be hot so I did not fill the piñata with chocolate despite my really wanting a reason to buy massive amounts of chocolate, so I did a mix of sweet and sour candies and cheap toy filler. I think I chose wisely. The average age of our younger attendants was 4. Waiting for a bunch of 4 year olds to crack open this piñata was going to be torture. Ain't no body got time for that! So I tried to make it an all ages piñata. Surely some adults would love to get in touch with their inner child and take a whack at the piñata.  Not a single taker! We had to ask beg the teenager at the party to help us out. -- Props do go out to 5 year old Evan, who somehow managed to crack the piñata stick in two without so much as denting the piñata itself. Skillz.

At our Ugly Sweater Christmas party last year, we set up a photo booth of sorts and it was a lot of fun, so we decided from now on we are going to try an incorporate a photo op for our party guests at each event.... 

Most of the time when we host a party or get together, the menu causes me the most trouble. It's not coming up with the menu items that is the problem, it's finding the time to make sure everything is prepped and ready for the party. I've come to realize this is because I try to cook everything myself from scratch and spend the better part of two days getting food items ready. Yes this may make for tastier and more creative options, but it's a pain in the butt. Thankfully carnival food and made from scratch are not always synonymous. I held firm to the carnival theme with the menu: Nachos, corn dogs, soft pretzels, popcorn (from an actual popcorn machine thanks to our awesome neighbors), watermelon, and snow cones with lemonade to quench your thirst. All things I easily found at Costco, mostly in the frozen section. Open package and heat in oven. Yes! I had battled with the idea of doing corn on the cob and frozen bananas, but I thought I might be going overboard with the food so I scaled back on those. The snow cones were definitely a hit. I think I had three of four of them because they were so refreshing! 

 Simply Amazing Bakery made the sweet treats - churro and cotton candy cupcakes for the guests, which we got many many compliments on, and circus big top personalized smash cakes for the boys. Too bad the heat caused the cake icing to melt a bit by the time the boys actually smashed them... I don't think they minded much. 

For the party favors, I had hoped to get boxes of animal crackers - you know, the ones that look like box cars of circus animals, but I didn't think that would be very cost effective. Plus how lame to just stick a bow on a box of cookies. So instead I bought some Mother's original animal cookies -  the pink and white iced ones with the sprinkles on them. I bagged those up in cellophane bags and made some tags to go on the outside. I had hoped to get a nice photo of the boys with their party hats on for the tags but after about 20 minutes of trying to get a half decent shot, a gave up and just picked one of the less awful ones.

Kinda looks artsy or something, right? 

I am so thankful to everyone who came to the party and celebrated with us. I vowed I would spend more time enjoying the party and less fretting about and I feel like I did get to enjoy the party. I did not get many photos, however, so I'm hoping the virtual wall of paparazzi taking photos of the boys will be kind enough to share some photos with me. The theme was amazing and so much fun. Perfect for a first birthday party.