Baby Boy's First Birthday!

We celebrated one year with our Bundle of Joy this summer. I still can't believe how fast the first year went by!

Anyway, I wanted to have a themed party that was cute, cheap and fun but not overdone. You know what I mean? I browsed Pinterest, like any mom would do for ideas...
And here's how it turned out:

Baby Boy loves The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (who doesn't?) and the theme was born. I made the caterpillar using a few sheets of scrapbook paper. I used a bowl to trace the circles and used the book's cover as a guide to finish him off.

My sister gave us a wonderful photo shoot (lots of balloons involved) and I was able to reuse the balloons for this! So fun!

I just so happened to have this little jar...so I had to make another caterpillar friend for the table. Find the directions here.

Since the party was small (just us, grandparents, and one uncle), we had foods that the grown ups would enjoy, but also that fit the theme. I tried to incorporate foods from the book, thus the watermelon, "green leaf" salad with apples, berries, candied nuts and strawberry dressing, and then some crackers, meats and cheese. It was tasty.

Call me old fashioned, but I really wanted to make the cake myself. Sure, it would have been prettier coming from a bakery (and I have some friends who put me to SHAME), but I remember how much I loved my mom's homemade birthday cakes. They were so special, made just for me. And I want to continue that tradition with my son. Behold: the (cup)cake(s).

Maybe I'll aim for something more challenging on next year's cake...

So there you have it! We had a blast. :-)