Just like we start thinking of Halloween costumes months in advance, we started thinking about Trent’s first birthday party months in advance. But shockingly enough, we made the decision on a theme much quicker than both of us expected. Even more shocking was that it wasn’t a Disney theme. Take THAT assuming family members!
Brett actually came up with the idea for a Monster Party because of how many cute ideas he saw on Pinterest and thought of on his own. Although Trent loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, we kinda thought it would be best NOT to go with what everyone expected us to do and instead pick something different and then from now on, Trent can pick his own party theme. I can’t wait to see what he chooses.
We definitely had plenty of ideas for this theme! Starting with the invitation. Brett purchased a pack of monster clip art on Etsy (from here), then made the invitation in Photoshop. We ordered them from the company that partners with Brett’s Zenfolio photography website, mPix, since they offered a great price and we could print front and back and it came with envelopes. Sold.
We were so excited to mail these out and we hope everyone loved getting them.
Leading up to the party, we had several craft projects that I will share with you guys over the next few weeks. We had a decent mix of store bought items and stuff we made ourselves. Brett definitely had the bulk of DIY projects, but he was so excited to do each and every one of them and I usually had baby-wrangling duty while he did party prep.
Welcome! {watch out for the photobombing kitteh!}
We used our IKEA easel to both welcome guests on the chalkboard side and thank them for coming on the dry erase side! We lined the walkway with balloons on sticks (found here) and a big balloon from Party City on the chalkboard. As a funny side note, that balloon was $10…and this was the second one we purchased…the first one blew away in the Costco parking lot while Brett ran and jumped after it. I was inside picking up something we forgot, so I missed it, but we were both sad and immediately drove back to Party City to buy another one. Most places put a weight on the bottom of the balloon, but apparently Party City does not, nor did they ask us if we wanted one. I was a little disappointed in the service, and having to spend $20 for a balloon didn’t help my feelings towards them, nor did the fact that the 2nd balloon started to deflate before the party even started the very next day, much faster than a Mylar balloon should. BUT, we had our balloon and the party must go on.
Also, to save time the morning of the party, we purchased a bag of balloons and a small helium tank and blew the balloons up ourselves at home instead of going to the grocery store. Good thing too, because we would NOT have had time to run out to the store that morning. Getting a small helium tank was the ultimate time saver that I highly recommend.
The big project for Brett leading up the party was making these giant monsters!
We set them up as a photo opportunity and they were a BIG HIT! Even the adults were posing with them for photos! (Here’s a tutorial on how we made them)
Here’s the (little) man of the hour posing for us…
…and with friends! The kids were fascinated by them, too…they were fluffy!
On a side table, we had some birthday cards Trent had gotten in the mail prior to the party, along with an Adopt A Monster station, where little guests could pick out a small monster to “adopt” and take home with them! (Monsters here)
My semi-DIY project was this wall photo collage of a big 1 using 100 photos from Trent’s first year!
We had a coupon for 100 free 4×6 photos from Costco, so other than the cost of double-sided tape, this decoration was free! Even without a coupon, the photos would have been $13…not bad and everyone enjoyed looking at all the photos and trying to find one with them in it (which we tried to include at least one photo of Trent with each person at the party).
Another DIY project from me were these monster favor/goody bags!
Inside the favor bags were various monster toys! {contents listed at the end of this post - Tutorial found here!}
We had an empty area above the favor bag station, so we stuck some monster clings (found here) along with a photo from Trent’s cake smash photo session, monster lollipops (found here), his Mickey ears and his monster snack cup.
We set up our dining room table as the themed cake/desserts/child snack table.
Brett took green and blue streamers and twisted them, then taped them to the wall, along with a monster Happy Birthday banner (from Hobby Lobby).
Brett made the cake himself (he made all the food lol).
A monster cake! To make the monster, he made and molded rice krispies, then used blue-colored candy melts to cover the body. The arms are sticks covered in blue fondant, the ears and mouth are made of fondant and the eyes are plastic googly eyes.
Other various items on the table:
2 glass containers (from the Container Store) with googly eyes filled with cheddar goldfish and cheerios (for the little ones!). We also had several colorful IKEA frames with monsters scattered throughout the various tables.
I made monster utensil holders out of tissue boxes (tutorial here!). We also had multi-colored Jones soda bottles and straws.
Green and blue chocolate candies and GoGo Squeez applesauces!
Jello molds using mini muffin silicone pans (found here) with candy eyes on top (found here). These were gobbled up super fast!
Watermelon monster…aaaaggghh!
Fun!
For the main meal, we served a Mexican tortilla/taco bar!
Items included: Beef, chicken, black beans, lime cilantro rice, lettuce, tomato, salsa, queso, shredded cheese, enchilada sauce, sour cream, chips, hard shells and soft tortillas. The only thing missing were the margaritas, but we decided to keep this a BYOB event. Mostly everything came from Costco and some items from Publix.
In the backyard, we had a monster bean bag toss…that Brett made! (tutorial here!)
In the pool, we had several mini monster beach balls (found here) and other various pool toys.
We had the splash pad set up on the lawn and it was enjoyed by the younger kids - which was also great for the parents that didn’t want to get in the pool!
We opened gifts in front of the monsters. By this time, since Trent had skipped his nap that morning, he was in a zombie-like state and ready to pass out. But we pushed on and opened gifts as quickly as we could.
He looks absolutely thrilled doesn’t he?
Even though we were pushing our time luck and we figured he wouldn’t be too into it and would rather be sleeping, we still had to sing Happy Birthday, so we shifted everyone to the dining room and gave it a go.
{not thrilled - he may or may not be sleeping with his eyes open}
{“Eww, it’s on me!!”}
{“What am I supposed to do with this?”}
{“Ok, MAYBE I will try it as long as you hold me, mom”}
Well, it’s a good thing we did a cake smash session on his actual birthday or this would have been a pretty disappointing cake smash. After this, I didn’t even clean him up (there wasn’t much to clean up anyway!), walked him up to his crib, where he immediately fell asleep and slept for over 2 hours! We should have a birthday party every day if it makes him sleep that well!
After his nap, he was ready to play with all his toys!
It was a fun-filled, but very hectic day. I’m glad we were able to celebrate with family and friends…including little friends, too!
Want to throw a monster party? Here is a list of items we used and where we purchased them (I’ll come back and update this post with links to the tutorials as I post them):
Invitations:
Monster clip art (can also be used to print and put in frames!) - Etsy
“This little monster is 1″ shirt - CafePress
“I’m this many” mini button - CafePress
Giant monsters (tutorial here!):
Fabric - Fabric.com
Adopt a Monster:
Little plush monsters - Amazon
Monster goody/favor bags (tutorial on how to make the bags):
Colorful bags - Hobby Lobby (or similar here)
Monster squirt balls
Monster tattoos
Monster stickers
Monster bubbles
Monster finger puppets
Monster bean bag toss (tutorial here):
Bean bags - Amazon
Monster clings - Amazon
Monster lollipops - Amazon
Monster googly eyes
Giant (used on the watermelon monster) - Amazon
Small - edible (used on the jello molds) - Amazon or Hobby Lobby
Assortment (as various decorations) - Amazon
Monster Beach balls - Amazon or Oriental Trading
Monster utensil holders (tutorial here)
Monster cake:
Cake stand - Amazon (it spins!)
Candy melts - Amazon or Hobby Lobby or wherever you get your baking goodies
If you enjoyed this post, please help us share the fun by pinning the following collage to Pinterest or sharing this post on Facebook! Thank you for reading and sharing!
xoxo
Lynn
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