PARTY Planning!

The BIG day is finally upon us! KAMDEN turns 1 YEAR OLD TODAY!!! I can not begin to tell you how excited we all are... or how long I have been planning this special birthday celebration for him. I started gradually a few months ago. With our busy schedules, I did not want to be rushed, so I have carefully used every spare minute these past few months putting this Dr. Seuss themed birthday bash together! I love party planning, and using my creativity. With help from tons of Internet searches, I was able to get many good ideas to go along with the "Cat In The Hat" themed event.

First, we started off with the paperless "Save The Date" by starting an event page on Facebook, to share with our family and friends. I created this cute little picture using my favorite online photo editor, Picnik. I tried my best to start getting things together, on the earlier side, so we sent these out about 6 weeks in advance. Since his birthday falls on a Saturday, we decided to have it on the actual day from 1-4pm at Kate's Park in Fletcher, NC. This weekend is also Labor Day holiday weekend, so finding a location was a challenge. Kate's Park, was not our first choice, but we are glad it worked out. It's more private and secluded than the other areas, and it also has a nice playground and picnic area.

This was the front... with Kamden's pictures from Birth to 11 Months Old. I found the riddle that rymed online, and also used it to tell the date and time of the party.

This was the back. This told the location and address. I also found specific directions to include as well!

The first thing I started putting together, were the invitations. I got some ideas through other creative people, from sites like Etsy-- the place to buy homemade goods. When I saw a similar idea to this invite, I thought to myself-- I can make those! I started off with a blank canvas in Mircrosoft Office Publisher. It's more user friendly than the others, and it's simple. I created all the geometric shapes by hand (with the mouse, of course). I experimented with dozens of fonts to find the closest to match the theme. For the full affect, I had to implemented Lorax Trees. I used picnik again, and the paint tool built in my computer to make the background transparent and insert his name in the Lorax tress. I also used a google image search to find Dr. Seuss clip art, to help with the rest of the graphics. It took a while to create the finished product, but we were so pleased with the way they turned out. Not only did we save money by doing them ourselves, but we liked them even better than the ones you could purchase online!

I made 12 Dr. Seuss treat boxes for the kids. Each one had a homemade mini coloring book, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, marker, stickers, two erasers, two book marks, pencil holder, and a button... all Cat In The Hat themed of course!

This was the front of the mini color books, I designed!

In preparation, coming up with ideas to coincide with the theme, were endless! There were so many possibilities and creative things you could come up with. Of course, we went with red, teal, and white as the colors. In the following weeks, I was able to find Dr. Seuss things here and there as I shopped around town. With school starting up again, our local craft store and Target had a whole section devoted to the Cat In the Hat! I was able to find a stand up Cat In The Hat, that stands over 5 feet tall. As well as Dr. Seuss themed book marks, paper cut outs, pencils, markers, erasers, stickers, and so forth. For the treat boxes I also made a 13 page mini coloring book. I also printed new "Oh! The Places You'll Go" labels to glue on the bubbles and sidewalk chalk. All items in the Dr. Seuss treat boxes, went along with the them. What I wasn't able to find in the stores locally, I ordered offline. I was able to find Dr. Seuss balloons, birthday hats, blow outs, baby costume, hats, shirts and all the other party gear through Amazon. The next item I started working on were the other party favors. I knew exactly what I wanted to do... candy bags! These were filled with red mini Swedish fish. I also designed the candy toppers, with a personalized thank you with Kamden's picture on them! For the tiny kids, I made a favor that was more safe... Goldfish cracker baggies! The other party favor I designed myself, were the cupcake toppers! They had Kamden's face with a Dr. Seuss hat with the #1 on the front. I used clear glitter bubble paint, to give them the final sparkle!

These are the candy bags and cupcake toppers I designed and made myself... there were 30 of each!

20 Bags of Goldfish crackers for the littlest ones!

The next project was to create three different birthday banners. Those displayed Kamden's pictures from Birth to 12 Months, Happy 1st Birthday, and his name for the highchair decorations. Meanwhile, I still had to plan the other decorations and details. I hand wrapped the utensils, and used scrapbook paper as napkin rings. I also found teal and red Kool-Aid coolers for the kids, and a clear beverage bucket to show off the theme colors. I also made red containers to look like the "Thing 1" emblem, that will hold blue cotton candy (to resemble the Thing 1 and 2 hair!).

The last phase of planning the party, was gathering the food items. I ordered the cake and smash cake from City Bakery in downtown Asheville, NC. They made a tall 8'' cake to look like the Dr. Seuss hat. It will go on a cake tower tray, that will also display the teal cupcakes! I wanted to stay along the lines of the theme, so I had to have some sort of green eggs and ham! So here is what I planned for the menu:

Kamden's FIRST Birthday Party Menu:

1 Tray of Ham Subs

1 Tray of Turkey Subs

1 Tray of Roast Beef Subs

1 Tray of Green Deviled Eggs

1 Box of individual assorted chips

1 Basket of Red Apples

1 Bowl of Goldfish Crackers

8 Containers of Blue Cotton Candy in Red Boxes

1 jar of red Twizzlers

1 jar of teal Twizzlers

1 jar of red Swedish fish

1 jar of red and white stripe mints

1 Bucket of Waters

1 Bucket of Cokes

1 Bucket of Red and Teal Kool-Aids

1 Teal Hawaiian Punch

1 Red Hawaiian Punch

Dr. Seuss Hat Chocolate Cake

30 Chocolate and Vanilla Cupcakes

The last phase of the party planning, was arranging for fun and games! I planned a guessing game where I filled a glass jar up with Goldfish crackers to play a guessing game. There were actually 475 of those little things in there, and yes... I counted every single one! haha. I made little matching cards that you would fill out your name and answer. I also found cut out paper Dr. Seuss hats, that I planned on playing, "Pin the hat on the cat!" Just a new twist on pin the tail on the donkey, Dr. Seuss style of course! The last little activity, was having all of the guests sign Kamden's "Happy Birthday To You" book by Dr. Seuss.

For the finishing touches, I rented out all of the Dr. Seuss books they had at the local library to also use as decorations. On the last minute, some friends came over to help me make 5 giant tissue pom-poms to hang over head. I also spray painted a basket and box red, to hold the chips and apples. That took longer than I expected, because I had to keep going back and layer the paint everyday for the last week! I also added, a black felt number one to Kam's party hat. Every detail matters... especially when you have a SPECIAL FIRST BIRTHDAY BOY like baby Kamden!