The Documentation of Lubbock's First Birthday Celebration

I made the cards for his party prior to really committing to a set color theme, so the pennants on the card didn't completely match the actual party. OCD Nata-Leigh let this bother her endlessly, but normal me admits that it was something to learn from.




The theme for his party was "pennants." The colors were red, blue, aqua, and craft paper (I know that's not really a color). I found the wrapping paper with these colors and lined my table with it. That's one of my party planning tips. Using wrapping paper as a 'table cloth' saves clean up time and adds a festive touch to the room.

The cake was made by Kathleen Debus of Pastry Girls. I provided her with the card I made, a sample of the wrapping paper, and a drawing of what I wanted. She was pretty accommodating. She even suggested the flags around the bottom since I was at a loss of what to use as the base trim.

I used gift wrapping bows around the base of the cake plate to provide an inexpensive touch (especially since they can be re-used later in gift giving).




The cupcakes were simply topped with white icing and we used red and blue cupcake liners found on Confectionery House's website. They have so many colors, I bought almost every single one! I'm such a sucker.

I made little aqua pennant to go in each cupcake and set the platters on a gift wrapped box with a red napkin underneath.




The favor boxes were little craft paper boxes purchased from another one of my favorite websites, Paper Mart. I always buy boxes from them. I've used them for the boxes for my wedding favors and the boxes I give our Christmas cookie assortments in. They always have the size and color I'm looking for at a reasonable price.

I also put a '1' on each box in red so they would match the party invitations. The '1' was cut from card stock at a local scrap booking store. As long as you buy the paper from them, they let you use the dye cuts for free. So, I spent about $1.50 on paper and was able to get all the '1's I needed.




Here's a close look at the top of the cake ... again, our red '1' makes an appearance.




That was Lubbock's party. He hated the cake ... not that it didn't taste great ... I think he was just freaked out by the icing.

It was great to have all of his friends over and it was one of the first nice weekends that year, so it was nice to have the use of the outdoor space for kids to run around.

We requested that guests bring a donation for a local charity that sponsors an outdoor experience for local disadvantaged teens. We had such a great response to this that I think we'll continue doing this each year. As he gets older, he'll be able to choose the charity to sponsor.