MAX'S 1ST BIRTHDAY - ROUND PARTY!

When people asked what theme Max's first birthday was going to be, and I said "round"... they were like... ummm cool. Okay so Max is round, he loves balloons and balls- those are round, and honestly I couldn't think of anything that hadn't been done a million times before! Plus it's so simple- just my style. 

The party was supposed to be in our backyard with lanterns strung from the trees, circular picnic blankets, ring toss, bubbles, etc. Guess what? It poured every. single. day. that week including the day of the party. Super dark outside too for pictures. Fantastic. We're still in our rental (egg yolk and old lady sage walls), so basically my plan was to camouflage the grossness with tons and tons of balloons. I think it turned out really well, and most importantly, everyone had a great time! And let's be honest, when you're dealing with one to four-year-olds really all they need are toys and cake. Cake is clutch. 

FOOD:

See what I mean? Cake is clutch.

I baked two batches of white cake in sheet pans so the layers would be thin, froze the layers, cut with a 2.5" biscuit cutter, then just piped colorful frosting in between. 

 All round food!

 Complete with Aunt Ellie's Campfire Crispies! They are SO. GOOD. Do yourself a favor and order these babies.

DECOR:

Had to cover the nasty chandelier :)

Monthly photos of Maxie cut out into circles, naturally.

I made this little picnic blanket out of a drop cloth. Draw two concentric circles in pencil and paint in the lines. Make sure to paint the circle before you cut. That way it'll look nice and neat! 

FAVORS:

Party crowns, tattoos, hula hoops, bouncy balls

Custom temporary tattoos with each kid's name from our Etsy shop!

ACTIVITIES:

RING TOSS

I ordered the rings on Amazon and got bottles from the dollar section at Target. Since the party was supposed to be outside, I had painted wooden dowels to hammer into the grass. Sigh. Still a fun activity for the kids though! 

DIY GIANT SURPRISE BALL

Getting a surprise ball was a tradition at my sister and my birthday parties growing up. I decided to supersize it by using a container from Party City as the center to make this huge!

Each kid got to unwrap a color, once that streamer color ended, they got the prize and gave the ball to the next kid. It ACTUALLY worked! Couldn't believe how patient the kids were waiting for their turn! So fun!

INVITATIONS:

I got the beach balls from Oriental Trading Company and wrote on them with neon Sharpies. Here's the thing... they can't fold totally flat, so they were considered a parcel... which means they were $3 each to mail! I took them to the post office and got 5 different stamps, which actually looked pretty cool. Thankfully I only invited a handful of people, and I hand-delivered most!

 On the back of the ball it said:

ROLL on over to Max's

(address)

It was a sweet day for my sweet, round little Maxie!

-L

And the winner of the Freshly Picked Giveaway is....

Kelly Vance!

Woohoo!! Please email us at loveandlion@gmail.com!

Thank you all for entering! Many more giveaways to come!

FEATURED: ROWEN'S SHARK PARTY

We've been bugging our crazy-talented friend, Shara, for pictures of Rowen's Shark Party since we walked through the door of the party... and had our mind's blown. Modern, clean, fun, creative touches EVERYWHERE. Crafty in the coolest way, clever menu, fun games for kiddos...so good.

Shara used two slightly different colors of crepe paper and twisted them to create "water". She hung all the sharks from string so they would appear to float on top of the waves. Genius.

 One of our favorite things of the party was this shark wreath! Shara spray painted a foam wreath core gray then hot glued plastic sharks (here) all around to simulate a shark attack feeding frenzy!

The fins on the mantel were pin-on fins for the kids to wear. Shara made them using stiffened felt and a template found here.

 I mean... really

Cake topper here

 Menu:

Shark Bait sandwiches (tuna salad)

Shark Fin sandwiches (cheese triangles)

Slow Swimmer Salsa and Sea Algae Guacamole with Fins (blue tortilla chips)

Shark Teeth (Bugles)

Whale and Goldfish crackers

Vegetarian Shark Food (crudites)

Watermelon Shark fruit salad (carved by Shara's husband after she showed him pictures on Pinterest and convinced him it would be easy! Ha!)

Sea Dogs (hot dogs)

Great White Sugar Cookies

Fish Kabobs (gummy fish and shark candies on a stick)

Life Preservers (mini sugar donuts with red gel icing)

Jaws cupcakes (vanilla cake with vanilla whipped frosting and gummy sharks

Shark Attack cupcakes (blue velvet cake with coconut cream cheese icing and fondant fins)

Chum Punch

Shark Infested Lemonade

 Shara's favorite things about the sharks hung from the ceiling were the shadows they created when the light was turned on. The slight movement of the sharks and the big shadows made it look like there were actually sharks swimming around the room.

Party Activities: 

Shark Dress Up Bucket- shark, sailor, and captain costumes, beach ball, surfboard, sunglasses, flower leis, blow up shark, beach paraphemalia

Air swimmer remote-controlled helium shark (Amazon)

Pink the Fin on the Shark (Amazon)

Make Your Own Shark Game craft station

Let's Go Fishing Game

Finding Nemo Movie

 

Ari LOVED this activity... we still have his shark on the fridge!

 Favor buckets: "shark tank" bubbles, "under the sea" coloring book, shark stickers and tattoos, bag of shark and fish gummy candies, shark squirter toy, fish stamps, sunglasses, and glow bracelet

Invitation, favor tags, and thank you notes here

Gummy fish kabob!

Big Birthday Boy Rowen!

Thank you for sharing your party with us, Shara! We loved every minute of it (oh and so did our kids!!).