Preston's 1st Birthday!!!!

Happy 1st Birthday Preston!!!!

I started the planning process for Preston’s first birthday party in early December when I finally decided on “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” theme. I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me so I got to work on making his invitations so we could pass them all out to everyone at Christmas since the invitations were not mailable. The invitations were made out of mason jars in which the hungry caterpillar was inside the jar with the leaf he ate through that had all the party details. I got the idea from Pottery Barn kids and when I saw it, I just knew I had to recreate their fantastic idea. I bought mini pompoms to make the caterpillar and I distressed the paper leaf to make it look more realistic. It took a little more time than I anticipated but it was all worth it.

Literally the day after Christmas, I went into full-time party planning mode. There was so much I wanted to make and not a lot of time to get it done. The next phase was getting his cake ordered and finding a bakery that would make a vegan, gluten and soy free cake. I finally found one in Frisco and I also had them make the main Apple cake as well. For his cake, I went simple in the decorations on it but incorporated the #1 as the body of the butterfly.

Guest Birthday "Apple" Cake

Preston's "Butterfly" Cake

The first thing I made was the actual caterpillar out of paper lanterns. I was pretty impressed with the result and thought it came out soo cute. I also made a “Preston” banner, several pokadot stings, crate paper chandeliers, butterfly bubbles as the party favors and decked out his birthday party hat.

Our Very Hungry Caterpillar

Preston Banner

Butterfly Party Favors

1st Birthday Hat

My favorite craft for his party that I made was by far the 1 year picture banner that I made that included a picture of Preston for every month of his first year.

1 Year Banner

My favorite keep sake from his party would be the birthday bib Nana made for Preston. I was blown away by her creativity and it couldn’t have been more perfect. She incorporated the caterpillar in the #1 and the colors matched perfectly. Love love love it.

Adorable 1 Year Bib handmade by Nana

For the food, I knew I wanted to serve most of the foods the hungry caterpillar ate in the book so I went with the apple, strawberries, oranges, pears, plums (I went with grapes), Swiss cheese, salami, cherry pie, chocolate cake, pickles and the lollipop. I added chicken salad sandwiches, pizza rolls, various potato chips, caterpillar food (rice crispy treats) and turkey and ham for the build your own sandwiches.

The Party Scene

He ate through 1 lollipop

He ate through a slice of cherry pie and 1 piece of chocolate cake

He ate through 1 pickle

Caterpillar Food

Potato Chips

He ate through 2 Pears & 5 Oranges

When I was trying to think of a kids craft to keep the all the kids entertained I couldn’t really come up with anything that didn’t involve making a mess so after thinking about it, we finally came up with getting a bounce house. I’m soo glad we went this route because the kids loved it but most of all, Preston loved it. He loved going down the slide with me and Brent but he really loved going down all by himself. We are so doing a bounce house again I’m sure.

Bounce House

His birthday party was quickly approaching and with the help of my wonderful mom, we were able to pull off a pretty good party. Almost everyone came that was invited and Preston got a lot of good summer clothes and big toys that he could climb on and push around.

 Guest Book

 Grandma

So loved!!

 Mal

Grandpa Dave & Paw Paw

 Gram Gram and Kris

 Nana & Christy

Welcome Balloon

Welcome Sign

 Mommy, "Bubba", Natasha and Sara

Nana and Preston

Time to open all your gifts

First birthday present!!

 Entertaining a crowd

 Makinzi likes your new chair

 Playing on Daddy's old rocking chair from when he was a kid

 Playing in the Sonic Ice

The most memorable part for me was when everyone gathered around Preston and sang Happy Birthday to him. He loved everyone singing and he started clapping during the song. Soo sweet.
Unfortunately, the cake eating didn’t go so well. I really thought he would have enjoyed getting his hands messy with frosting but just the opposite happened. Once all the frosting got on his hands, he began to cry and didn’t want anything else to do with it. Once he got his paci, he was much better.

Time to eat Cake

 Not big on wearing hats

 Happy Birthday to You!!!

Blow

 Dig in

 Not liking it too much

 

Mindi so kindly took all the pictures the day of his party and I couldn’t thank her enough. She captured all the special moments and some. I’ve very lucky to have her as my bestie!!

Very special day that came and went but the memories will last forever. Now, what to do for his second birthday. Let the planning begin!!