Aedan's First Birthday - An Overview

So it has been forever! Like...six months forever. But I am finally getting around to recapping the first birthday of my son Aedan. Better late than never, eh?

His first birthday was a great success overall, but I can definitely agree that I overstretched myself with lofty ambitions and as usual, life's interruptions never help much. 

Leading up to his birthday was my own, and I threw a very small dinner gathering with my mom and a close friend with a young baby as well as my son and husband. I decorated a little bit and we had a nice dinner, shared some laughter and margaritas and ice cream cake! Then I set to work finishing as many last minute home improvement tasks that needed to be finished before I invited people into my home for my son's birthday party. Namely, laying nearly 900 sq ft of flooring single-handedly while cleaning and caring for an energetic almost-one year old. Oye, what an exhausting undertaking THAT was; but it got done! After much encouragement, my husband helped by finishing up the painting of the bathroom and my son's room. After these things were done, I was finally able to fully concentrate on the ACTUAL party planning tasks.

Since my son's birthday fell before the actual party date, I threw a tiny little get together with my mom and husband so we could open all of the gifts we got him and have a little cake smash without the distraction of having to host a party at the same time. 

Aedan's birthday presents!

We had fun, but I learned never to attempt a cake smash with a very very tired one year old. It turns into a melt-down; fast. He still looked ridiculously cute in his cake smash costume though!

Mama's lil Chippendale!

 Yes; that is a Chippendale costume! I was trying to think of a creative way to costume a little boy that didn't involve too many clothes that would become covered in icing and cake. Little girls are easier in that respect. Adorable headbands, fluffy tutus, tiaras; it's easy to dress up little ladies without actually dressing them up. Boys on the other hand? Not so much. And then it struck me; costume without a lot of clothes? And you can see where the inspiration came from! So I fashioned a DIY bowtie and collar and some cute white cuffs and I took a pair of his old jeans and frayed them into cut-offs in the drying. I'll post a write-up of how I created the props soon!

My messy attempt at cake decorating!

I made my own tiny cakes for the occasions. I used a small ceramic bowl to get the shape and size, since I didn't have any small pie tins or cake molds. I simply cut parchment paper to fit into the dish and filled it with a small amount of batter. I had just enough batter to make two two-layer cakes out of one boxed cake mix. Yeah, I cheated and used box mix and a can of icing. I had to cheat somewhere! I used strawberry jam as a filling. He enjoyed his cakes!

A few days later, we had his party! His party was a jungle safari theme and I went NUTS creating the decor for it. 

Zebra cupcakes, giraffe cupcakes and my sad little lopsided cake!

 For food, we had fried chicken, homemade baked ziti, homemade mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes (with bacon, sour cream and marshmallows), cheese, fruit and veggie platters, chips, mini fajitas and mini corn dogs, homemade stromboli plus the homemade cupcakes and cream puffs! A lot more people RSVP'd than actually showed up, so I was left with a TON of food that was uneaten. Live and learn, I suppose! 

My 'magic tree' creation

 I was really inspired by the movie 'Jumanji' starring Robin Williams. I loved the idea of making my house look like it had a jungle growing inside of it, so I created a giant tree centerpiece in the middle of the room using a previously existing support beam. It was a very exhausting labor of love but the effect was amazing. I joking called it my 'magical tree' because of how the leaves moved in the breeze. I'll be posting a write-up about the tree's creation soon!

Livingstone's Lunch Hut

I also wanted to incorporate the idea of an African hut into the room decor, so I fashioned a little grass hut roof out of some very basic materials and suspended it over the kitchen island where the food was served. Welcome to Livingstone's Lunch Hut! I'll make a tutorial on how to make a grass hut soon!

Caution - Party Animals Ahead

Of course, it's the little details that really bring a theme together, so I used some creativity and created a few signs to hang around the area. The concept was pretty simple and easy to execute; cardboard, scissors and a Sharpie marker with the help of some inspiration images found on the internet.

Personalized water bottles!

Another simple detail was personalized water bottle labels. They were super simple to design using some free animal clip art I found online. They were attached using packing tape to make them laminated and waterproof and came out super cute! I also made matching 2"x2" square stickers to decorate the drinking cups for the party so everything matched!

Party goers heading off into the African sunset!

By far the BEST part of the decor was created by my mother and brother! Using a white twin-sized flat sheet that only cost $5 at Walmart and a few different colors of spray paint, they created the amazing backdrop for birthday photos! It really made you feel like you were on a safari!

I also made a pinata for his birthday that we never ended up using! Overall, the day was fun filled and everyone had a great time. I loved creating all the decorations and I was pleased by what I achieved on a limited budget of time AND money. Plus my son had fun, which is all that ever really matters!

Happy birthday baby boy!

XOXO

Jenny