K Babe: Jack's First Birthday Party! A Monster Bash!

My little wittle baby turned 1! It's been the longest and fastest year of my life. It's been the most challenging and most rewarding. It's brought me more worry and also more joy than I could imagine. I have learned more in this one year than in any other, even my crazy semesters at the University of Michigan. Overall, this has been the greatest year of my life.

More on one-year updates soon, but I wanted to post some highlights from Jack’s monster birthday bash! So, I started with a little monster inspiration and then over spring break just kept thinking of more and more ideas! This was a lot of work, but I started early and thoroughly enjoyed it. And in true Hispanic culture, the first birthday for my boy was indeed a hit! I must give some credit where credit is due: Pinterest (LOVE it)! I took some ideas as is, tweaked some, and came up with a few originals myself J

Inspiration: The invites.

Party Favors: I bought some felt and took a little pattern and made about 25 of these little guys! The best part of sewing monsters is that they less perfect they look – the better! As the kids left, they all “Adopted a Monster.”

Party Hats: Monster eyes. Everyone participated in this, such fun! Cheap headbands from the dollar store + pipe cleaners + googly eyes (thank you to JoAnn Fabric’s sales!)

Activity 1: Toss bean bags into monster buckets. Buckets from the dollar store and I glued eyes onto them. My mom made the bean bags.

Activity 2: Pin the eye on the monster. I took big pieces of paper and created this little guy. We had a piece of plywood in the garage and I had David cut it for the base. I gave each child an eye and they tried to tape it on the eye. Such fun.

Activity 3: Pinata. At our parties we like to blindfold our kids, make them dizzy and watch them try to complete some sort of task (put a piece of paper in a specific spot or swing a large stick at an object) and we all watch and laugh. Ha. Good times, good times.

Activity 4: Monster Tattoos. I ordered these from Land of Nod.

Activity 5: Color a Monster. I found these free printables online and wa-la.

Decorations

Jack’s Outfit: I couldn’t help myself. Not to be prideful, but come on! How cute is that? (My good friend Jeni, from MI, always makes her son, Kal, a shirt with the number of his new age for his birthday. I stole this idea from her – thanks, Jeni!)

Banner: Okay, so I do work at my part-time job, but I did have an extra half hour one day and they do have a great tool to cut out letters....wouldn’t you?? (So, the wind wasn't working in my favor for pictures of it)

Centerpieces: Tweaked this idea from pinterest. I had these old jars from my teaching days.

Pillow: I wanted to make Jack something for his birthday and so this came to mind. I sewed a little “1” on the bottom to remember the birthday I made it. Each year I *hope to make him a gift. I’m sure he’ll think it’s a really cool idea when he’s 15, don’t you?

Cups and Silverware Containers: Thanks pinterest! Took cleanex boxes and covered them with paper. This was actually the most time-consuming and annoying project.

Food: Monster soda and Monster goop. Yum yum

Cupcakes: I had this really intricate idea for decorating the cupcakes and making each one look like a different kind of monster...and then the day of the party came and I ran out of time. I dyed my frosting, got out my decorating bags and tips and went at it! I glued the eyes on the toothpicks during my spring break, so they were ready to go. I had planned to use them for the fruit and other food, but they worked out perfectly here!