The Birthday Madness

Well here it is, four days after Nolan's party.  I really can't believe he's one or that the party is over.  All that baking and decorating and now I'm left just with clean up duty.  I'm definitely relieved the party is over, yet now I am thinking what will I do with my free time?  Oh I know...maybe clean up my house...because let's be honest it looks like a disaster area.

Nolan's party was great, and I was really happy with how everything turned out.  I happened to be googling birthday themes when I came across the "Anchors Aweigh" theme.  I thought it was super cute but at the time didn't realize how difficult it would be finding some items.

These were the decorations on the mantle.  I took three old wooden frames that I have owned since college and spray painted them with the same blue spray paint that I had left over from a table we painted for Nolan's room.  Then I ordered three 8 x 10's in black and white to put in them. 

I found the metal tins at Hobby Lobby.  I just put tissue paper at the bottom of the tin to look like water, and then placed some wooden boats I found at Hobby Lobby and some actual toy boats Nolan already owned.  The pennant banner I made with card stock and ribbon from Hobby Lobby as well.  If you would like the tutorial I used online to make this just write a comment or send me an email.  Even I a left-handed, can't cut or draw a straight line kind of girl actual made this look decent!  So I know you can do it!

For the "Happy 1st Birthday Banner Nolan," I decided to wrap a painting that I already had hanging in blue paper to cover it up and to give the banner a background.  I actually got this idea from where I used to work...they used to do this at Christmas time to cover up the ugly paintings to make the office look more festive.  I ordered the "Happy 1st Birthday Banner", "I Am One" high chair banner, cupcake toppers, and the confetti from an awesome Etsy shop called 10 Candles. I found her to be easy to work with, great designs, and reasonably priced.  A lot of places on Etsy had some $30-$35 banners which was totally out of the question.  I used a hole punch to put holes in the confetti so I could string it with a blue ribbon that I tied around the drinking glasses (which are blue glasses I already owned.)

I also ordered this printable birthday invitation design on Etsy from the shop Sweet Talk Designs.  Again, she was very easy to work with and emailed the invitation to be in a PDF format which had two invitations on an 8x11 sheet.  This worked out perfectly because all I had to do was print it on some white card stock and then cut it in half.  So no sizing adjustments or anything!  I also had extra 5x7 envelopes from Christmas cards last year so I just used those to send them out.

I made all the Poms you see hanging from the chandelier and the ones on the mantle.  I just used the Martha Stewart guide for this...which I've seen everyone pin on Pinterest.  I actually was pretty impressed on how the turned out as well because when you start with tissue paper you have your doubts. 

My mother-in-law made the table cloth on the main table with some fabric she bought at JoAnn's.  It matched the theme perfectly!  The cupcakes were a ginger apple cake flavor recipe that I made from Southern Living.  They are perfect for fall and are so good.  Again, let me know if you want the recipe, and I can email it to you. 

Nolan's Jon Jon was from the Etsy shop FunStyle.  I was really impressed with quality of the outfit.  I just picked out one from her site and asked if she could add an anchor to the outfit, and she said no problem.  She didn't even charge extra for it.

I made the cake from scratch with a simple white cake and icing recipe I found online.  He seemed to enjoy it immensely!

He really racked up in the present department...I think I'll ban Christmas or I might have to buy a bigger house!  He received this cute rocker giraffe from my brother and sister-in-law.

Nolan had a great time, and I would have to say the party was a success.  Now I better go clean the remnants of the birthday party that are still lingering throughout the house!

(Oh and after the party Nolan and Ethan thought it was more fun to trade snack catchers...because we all know the goldfish are way cooler when it is someone else's!)