Nathan's 1st Birthday Party

For those of you that are still out there, I'm still here :)  I took some time away from blogging before the holidays to be with the family and enjoy the fun craziness that Christmas brings.  Then I started messing with my blog and attempting to make changes to my name and layout and I just got so confused that I gave up.  So I've created a new site that I love but I have no idea how to merge my blog to the new one or how to transfer my content to the new one, so until I figure that out, I'm back here again!  So without further ado, I'll try to catch everyone up on our life for the past 2 months!

I love planning parties.  I think that in my previous life without kids, I was an amazing event/party planner that spent hundreds of hours on all the details that make throwing a party so much fun.  And now with the abundance of ideas and inspirations available online, I simply get my ideas from the true party geniuses out there and implement them to plan fun parties for my own family. 

I found some really great ideas on Pinterest when I was looking for a theme for Nathan's 1st party and finally settled on a jungle theme from HWTM.  I sat in front of the computer for way too long trying to teach myself how to use Photoshop to create the invites and labels and tags when I finally forced myself to be okay with what I had created.  It wasn't perfect but it was good enough!  If you're not so crafty and want amazing ideas and products made to order, check out the printables from the TomKat Studio - they are so inspiring!

 I used my Cricut machine to make the happy birthday banner and welcome sign using scrapbook paper.

 A personalized thank you tag on boxes of animal crackers were the take home party favors.

 I printed out the picture I took of Nathan each month and hung it on a piece of twine across our fireplace to show how much he grew each month.  I added a little tag to each clothes pin for each month 1-12.

 I used the extra pieces from my Happy Birthday banner to decorate his high chair and used an extra piece of scrapbook paper to make his birthday hat.

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 Unfortunately the lighting is horrible and I forgot to take a picture of the dessert table when it was totally finished but you get the idea.  I made the pom poms (tutorial here) on the window for the first time and they literally took less than 2 minutes each and cost $.99 each to make - they were so cute & colorful!

I served Chocolate Animal Crackers, Goldfish, Jungle Vines (red licorice), Zebra Bites (chocolate drizzled marshmallows), Zebra Cakes (Little Debbie snack item), Animal Droppings (Reese's pieces), Banana Chips, & cupcakes.  I found the perfect cake pan to make super cute individual animal shaped cupcakes and my mom decorated them for me at the last minute - seriously don't know what would I do without my mom!

 I had a personalized onesie made for Nathan from Makmay Designs and seriously couldn't have been more pleased with what she designed for him.  I sent her a copy of the invitation so she knew the style and she used her creative magic.  It was perfect!

 It was an amazing day to celebrate with our family and best friends and I am so blessed to be a momma to this little guy and sweet girl!