Well, would you look at that- I go through a fabulous streak of all of the posting then...nothin' :-P In my defense, the last week was so damn crazy that after June 13, Greg and I threw in the towel and sorta just zoned the last few days. Between the party, docs appts, Musselman weekend and some family stuff, we were DONE! Musselman report coming soon - spoiler alert, it was NOT the race a I hoped for, but if I'm honest, I'm not shocked. I did get some wisdom out of it, and that's the real deal for experience, right? Right. But, backing up even further, I want to show you what we did for Rob's b day!!
We decided to go with a Teddy Bear picnic theme, 'cause he's our little "ro-bear". Greg and I really got into it - we did a tedy bear invite (designed by Greg-glaserdesignservices.com lol), and Mama Bear, Papa Bear and Ro-Bear shirts....also designed by him. I went a little Pinterest wild, and also threw in my own creativity. We invited 30 friends and family over to share, and the snag was to do it on a budget.....which we managed to pull off at $120 for all the food, decorations, drinks, and favors. It was a mix of bargain shopping and creativity.....take a look!!
FOOD - We did everything Bear themed. BEAR-B-Q, honey cornbread, daytime porridge (barley salad), field greens. Snacks were honeycomb, gummi bears, teddy grahams and BEAR-ies. I shopped sales for weeks for the snacks, drinks (Target soda and awesome soda coups made the drinks less than $20 for 10 2 liters, 2 iced tea jugs, 3 12 packs and 48 bottles of water). Tops had berries b2g3, and all snacks were bought with a coupon. Same with the bread and buns, which coincided nicely with 4th of July. For meat we used chicken thighs and chuck steak, which my Uncle brought, and my Dad and his new bride brought the field greens.
BEAR - ies
Personalized water bottles (yep, Pinterest)
BEAR B Que (Chicken and Beef)
Honey Cornbread and "Daytime Porridge"
Cake and Favors - I was all set to do cupcakes, then I couldn't find tins. As I think I mentioned before, Tops offered a free smash cake for Rob (all I had to do was bring his birth certificate to the service desk, no purchase necessary), so I went a little wild with my chocolate cake recipe. I had meant to use the teddy grahams for the cupcakes, and this just sort of evolved. Novice, but I had fun doing it! (Why pay $40 for a friggin cake??) The top is a round cake and a mini cake pan cut in two :-) For favors we did more homemade labels with gummy bears thanking our guests "beary much!" (Yes, this is why I had kids. lol)
Picnic style cake!
Favors
N Stuff - Obviously, we did the whole house in bears and gingham. I got the paper goods at the dollar store mostly, and found a killer deal on plates and cups at Walmart - 1st birthday stuff for .25 each. Score. I printed off lots of bear cutouts and peppered the house, and also jazzed up a first birthday banner and mural I got for $1. Bear bib - Ebay for $1.
Lastly (and my favorite part) was the album. Early on, I got into the habit of taking a picture of my super handsome son. Every. Single. Day. How could I not? Everything he did was amazing to this in love momma. Well, about 4 months in, I realized this could be a cool concept, so I kept at it, and a few months ago, started going through my pictures and picking my favorite one from every day (I think I ended up with over 1200 pics!) and stored them, dated, on a jump drive. I stalked target sales and walmart, and got some great deals on prints, and started my photo album/scrapbook - it wouldn't fit in anything but a binder, but I used some cool scrapbook paper and stickers. A picture and a caption for every day, sometimes more....from July 5, 2013- July 5, 2014. My kiddo's first year, one day at a time. It took me a ridiculous amount of time to finish, and I got incredibly teary doing it. And it was amazing. I know he will roll his eyes and me, but I'm sure someday when he is 6 foot tall and dating girls (like, next week), I will curl up on the sofa with a mug of hot cocoa and remember my baby :-)I highly recommend it - the whole thing was less than $50 to do and is probably my best memento from year one :-)
And that was the party! It was so much fun to plan (even when I got carried away) and even more fun to have! We did 90% in crock pots, which allowed us to enjoy the party and not stress about food, and had a great mix of cutesy and practical (according to our guests). Now, onto #2.....PARTY #2, ya know.
Geez :-P
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