Weston and I hosted our very first child’s birthday party at our house!  We did our best to make it super low-key and we tried really hard not to go overboard.  The guest list was family only for multiple reasons: COVID,  we weren’t sure how Camryn would react to lots of people focused on her, and to keep expenses low.

I love planning and I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I started planning her first birthday party at least 6 months ago.  Maybe even before then.  I searched for weeks for the perfect Jenny Lind high chair. I’m not sure why I had to have that particular vintage high chair, but I was convinced I needed it and I needed it to be white.  Thankfully, I found one in good condition on eBay and convinced the seller to ship it to me even though the listing said local pick-up only.  Score!  I sanded, painted, and sealed the high chair and I love how it turned out!  Camryn also got pretty excited about her chair!  Seeing her face light up every time she got in it was worth every penny.

THEME 

Was anyone surprised that we did a flamingo theme for Camryn’s first birthday party?  Honestly, I’m not sure if I can even claim a flamingo theme.  More accurately, we would probably have to call it a pink and white or balloon theme.  I didn’t want the flamingos to be obnoxious, but they have been a big part of the last year.  We had to include them!  This may also be the only birthday party I get to plan that doesn’t revolve around princesses or some kind of character, so I’m soaking up every minute of it!

DECORATIONS

We only have one room in our house that gets decent natural light. It was a no brainer in choosing the room to turn into the “party room.” 

I knew I wanted to incorporate balloons since we have used them for everything: our pregnancy announcement, gender reveal, initials announcement, name reveal, and her monthly photos.  The balloon garland may have been a little over the top, but Weston and my dad blew up the balloons while I assembled it.  Plus, it was only $15 on Amazon, so I don’t feel guilty about having it.

Since I put a lot of effort into Camryn’s monthly photos, I printed both the letter board and balloon monthly photos to show off at the party.  I’d love to take credit for the way I arranged them, but I got both ideas from Pinterest.

Many of the decorations I used were things we already had.  The gold flamingo, pink and white pineapple, and framed newborn photo were all borrowed from Camryn’s nursery.  The letter board was used in all of Camryn’s monthly photos and the white frame was one of the decorations from our wedding.  We loved being able to reuse these items to make Camryn’s party special!

FOOD

Camryn’s birthday party was at 3pm, so we only needed light food and refreshments.  I asked two of my super talented friends to make the cookies and cupcakes (thank you, Summer and Megan!).  I definitely didn’t want the extra stress of trying to prepare food and they came to the rescue.

After reading that we should not introduce sugar until after 2 years old and hearing it straight from Camryn’s dentist, we decided not to do a smash cake this year.  (No judgment for anyone that decides to do that for their child.  We just decided this was right for our family.)  That being said, I saw a really cool fresh watermelon cake covered in yogurt on Pinterest that I thought would be perfect for Camryn while we sang Happy Birthday.  Unfortunately, the fresh watermelon cake was no match for the Alabama heat and humidity.  The yogurt started melting off the sides of the watermelon, so I put it in the freezer to help keep it in place.  It worked, but the yogurt was still frozen when it came time to let Camryn dig in.  Oh well!

After an hour or so, my mom suggested that we buy a backup cake.  I asked Weston to go by Winn Dixie to get a cake for the table.  We legit bought a cake just for a photo.  I don’t regret it because I love the photos with that cake, but I do feel silly that we bought a cake for pictures.  No one even ate any until Weston and I started eating it later that night haha.

Well, that was Camryn’s party in condensed blog form!  What do you think?  Did we go overboard for her first birthday party or did we hit it just right?

P.S. We learned that all we really needed to do was give Camryn a balloon and play with her.  She had a blast!