In this post I talked about how the theme for my baby boy’s first birthday was SIMPLE. I know people go all out for parties, but I really didn’t want to do that to myself! I also didn’t want to set a precedent for future birthdays, and feel like I would have to make each year bigger and better.
We were all set to have our simple first birthday party at a local church picnic grove, and then the weather turned for the worse. Finally, 1 1/2 days before the party, we decided we should just squeeze into our house and make it work. Since we have a covered area outside, we could spread out into that area even if it was raining.
Suddenly, my ideal no-stress birthday party became a little stressful. My house was not ready for 20 guests! Yikes!
We finished up the bamboo privacy screens outside (because all of the materials were in the way of where we needed tables to be set out!) and quickly cleaned everything…and hey, it actually worked out OK!
I wrote about how we served everyone here – we kept the food really simple, but still got lots of compliments! Hint- I didn’t do anything handmade. Although I love cooking – a low-stress first birthday party just wasn’t the time to do it!
See all of those pictures in the background? I didn’t want to really decorate for his party (we weren’t supposed to have it at home!) so I quickly took some prints I had made of him throughout his first year, and taped them up with washi tape. It ended looking so so cute, and took me about 5 minutes!
We are fortunate to know two women who make cakes for people to bless them. Seriously – how amazing is that? They’re not interested in promoting themselves because they’re not a business…so I won’t link to them. But they made this gorgeous cake for Isaac’s birthday, and we were thrilled with it. Top tier: coconut cake with vanilla buttercream frosting, bottom tier: chocolate cake with whipped peanut butter frosting. YUM!
We gave out these simple favors (I shared them here – and have a free printable download too!)
We bought Isaac a water table for his birthday, and the kids had a blast playing with it while all of us watched and laughed at their interactions:
We used old folding tables with Dollar Store tablecloths:
We did presents inside & let the kids all play with the toys:
Even though we had to improvise at the last minute, I think our party turned out well! We were able to keep it simple (spend under $100 for everything) and focus on the most important things: celebrating Isaac’s life and having fellowship with dear friends and family!
What are your tricks to keep parties simple?
Like this post? You’ll also like:
This is super cute for only $100. He is adorable.