1st Birthday | Creative Party Place

This Cookies and Milk Birthday party was originally hosted by Heather from Pass the Cereal.

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The Cookies and Milk theme is one that I adore more and more every time I see it! I love it as an idea for a first birthday! And that BIG ‘cookie cake’….how stinkin’ cute is that! Scroll on down to have a look at all the details…..and I suggest you have some cookies and milk while you hang out here for awhile and check out all the great parties to see.

Enjoy……

Third child, first birthday…I almost skipped the party. I’m glad that some of my family urged me to get planning though as I loved how it turned out! And I found out that brainstorming with the 6-year-old can bring some amazing ideas to your theme! Our theme was Milk & Cookies/Bedtime Stories, because don’t those things just have to go together?

I found the perfect invitations from Tiny Prints. They were meant as a baby shower invitation suite, but I thought they worked perfectly for a one-year-old’s birthday (especially my one-year-old that refuses to stand up). So sweet right? There were pink & green options also, but given that I was sticking with a pastel color palette, these were the perfect fit!

The big kids usually collect donations at their friend parties and Jack thought it would be a great idea to collect books at Olivia’s party (even if she is little). So we collected board books for our local (and amazing) children’s hospital. I was so excited to see so many favorites!

The books actually served as party decor as we set them up along the sideboard as people arrived.

And hanging above the books were bright and cheery tissue paper poofs.

In fact we kept the decorations simple, with the tissue poofs and rows of gerbera daisies adding pops of color.

Well, I did do one batch of balloons for Olivia to go crazy flinging about. The face above is because she learned to close her eyes before the she sent them flying!

Wall decorations included a birthday banner and…

a photo time line from 0 months to 12 months, ceiling to floor.

And the food for the party was…A buffet of cookies & milk of course!

I used a circle design/logo throughout the party and couldn’t resist including a few more in these little frames on the table.

I baked six kinds of cookies for the party: Sugar Cookies, Snickerdoodles, Rainbow Swirl, Peanut Butter Kisses, M&M and amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies {recommended by southern daze}.

Strawberry, white & chocolate milk (because special occasions call for special milk).

My absolute favorite party suggestion from Jack was that all the kids come to the party in their pajamas! Soon after, EJ got these super cute milk & cookies jammies (in a batch of previously-loved clothes) and I set out to find equally cute jammies for the other two kids!

We emptied the toys out of our playroom, drew the shades, and set up a mini theater where the kids watched Bedtime Stories…

and ate lots of yummy movie snacks!

We created a keepsake book for Olivia out of a mini binder. I cut & hole-punched card stock to fit the binder and included a page with each invitation. Family & friends used the pages as a card, decorating them with stickers, drawings and notes to Olivia. The book came out better than I could have ever imagined.

The favor bags were these cute striped candy bags with a clear sticker on the front printed with one of five quotes from a favorite children’s book (4 star-themed & 1 Olivia bedtime quote thrown in for fun).

Each was filled with one of these yummy star cookies from a local baker {who you can shop with at her etsy shop}, sealed closed with a thank you logo seal, and partnered with a star cookie cutter. I have to give credit to Jack once again as the “star=nighttime” idea was all his!

This amazing chocolate chip cookie cake was made by our new friend Erin (thanks for the recommendation Auntie Sandy). You can check out more of Erin’s awesome creations here.

Olivia didn’t quite know what was going on, but she did seem to enjoy picking off the chips.

And apparently, unlike her mother, Olivia is not a huge fan of cake! We had to beg her to get a little dirty (I think her hair got the worst of it)!

Thank to everyone who helped make Olivia’s first birthday bash a huge success and for everyone who celebrated with us!

The gorgeous photography in this post is courtesy of {tsj} photography (thanks Auntie Tracie), and the less than stellar shots are from my trusty point & shoot!

Frog Prince Birthday

This Frog Prince First Birthday party was originally hosted by Paula at Frog Prince Creative.
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Well, we always see princess parties, but I’m loving this frog prince theme! Super cute. I love the color scheme and I think that the cake is absolutely to die for! I had a thought too….people are always looking for ideas for birthday themes when there is a boy and a girl. You could totally combine a frog prince theme with a princess theme. How cute would that be!

Enjoy this Frog Prince Birthday…..

I read somewhere not too long ago in some brilliant woman’s blog that when you throw a party, you just have to have a single element that is really a “WOW” factor that you spend time making perfect. Just one impressive feature – I think anyone can do that!

Candy buffets are hot hot hot right now for parties and weddings, probably because of the visual display that is a treat for the eyes (and later the tummy!)

The detail that was probably the most difficult about putting the buffet together was the glassware. Dropping $200 on jars was not in the birthday budget, so i bought one really spectacular jar and got creative with the rest! Here are my sources:

Urn shaped large footed apothecary jar – Hobby Lobby
Tall cylander footed apothecary jar – antique store
Squat apothecary jar – Micheals
Hurricane lamp – Pier1 (had it already)
Square vase – Pottery Barn, maybe? (had it already)
Trio of small apothecary jars – thrift stores
Lollipop holders – painted flower pots

I just loved the way lollipops looked standing up on a tablescape. I didn’t have anything handy to put them in, and didn’t have the time to build something elaborate. So, I took a few terra cotta pots, painted them white, and stuffed a wax paper covered piece of floral foam down inside. After cutting holes in the wax paper, I pushed in the suckers and covered the wax paper with jelly beans. The lollipops were personalized for each guest attending the party.

In addition to the candy, I did make some monogram sugar cookies, dipped some marshmallows in candy melt and rolled them in sprinkles, and dipped a few oreo cookies as well (man, were those good!) Kids seem to love everything on a stick, so the marshmallows were really a hit! Those that weren’t coated in candy were rolled in sugar. You can see how to make sparkly marshmallows over here.

Each one of the candy jars got a label showing what it was. I forgot to get scoops for the candy, and bought a melamine ladle instead. This actually worked out better, as it was much easier to get in the tall jars with the ladle.

The big question I keep getting asked is, “Where’d you get all that candy?” Where I get everything. Online! There was a really good selection of green candy at the Candy Warehouse; I scored big lollipops, gummy frogs, old fashioned candy sticks and mojito flavored salt water taffy. The green M&Ms were around during Valentines Day, and I just stocked up then from the stores in town.

The smash cake was made by a good friend of mine who lives three hours away. I was happy someone was able to transport it to the party for me! It turned out so neat!

The candy buffet was more a party favor at our event…guests were given a box to fill up with candy before they left as a thank you for coming. Next time I would definitely get bigger boxes, as there was still a lot left over even with 20 kids at the party. It was a nice memory for the kids, as they were all pretty excited about picking out all that candy!

Read more about the frog prince birthday invitations, big boy frog prince birthday crown, the cupcake tower, the rest of the frog prince party decorations, and the photo booth we had as part of the entertainment for the frog prince birthday party!