A Little Party for my son's 1st Birthday!

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the birthday boy M. not too happy about the tiny hat.

If you are new to the blog, what took you so long? :) I'm going to bring you up to speed on what is going on in the Cupcakes and Cutlery world. As some of my loyal readers may know, my family and I recently moved back to our home town (we were gone one very long year) and are currently bunking with the in laws whilst we house hunt. It has been hectic to say the least and blogging has taken a back seat. But I miss it!!!! It is my creative outlet and my inner hostess has been struggling to get out. Luckily, my youngest son turned one and gave me a fantastic excuse to get the creative juices flowing again. Since we don't have a place of our own to host a shindig, my parents were gracious enough to loan their house. So I decided to throw a little party for my son, M, with mainly family and just some treats. I had Martha Stewart's Tiny Party in a Box sitting on my party shelves just waiting for the right time and this was it. I loved that the colors weren't Christmasy at all (considering his birthday is Dec. 29) and that everything was so small. I loved the details in this kit from the patterned paper plates to the tiny party hats. It made it really easy to put the rest of the party together without having to devastate my parents house. I added just a few special touches and the party looked amazing.

I found fabric at a local store that matched the colors perfectly and had my mother in law (sew mama) and my father (building genius) construct the backdrop for the table. I hung some photos of M from the frame of the backdrop and just used a cheap photo mat from Michaels to frame them without adding too much weight. I used scrapbooking paper that matched the party kit pretty closely as "trays" for the cupcakes. My mom baked all the mini cupcakes (all were vegan and nut free for my other son with food allergies) and A- frosted them. Served Izze sodas, tiny juice boxes and small waters (all found at Target) for the drinks. I didn't use cups for the drinks and purchased blue and white paper straws from Urbanic to add a little something special. For the guest book, I purchased a make your own plate kit which will make an awesome keepsake for M as he grows and learns to eat off a plate and not throw it, full of food, to the floor.

We kept the rest of the party really simple. I used part of the kit for favor packaging (favors were tiny jars of Playdough and cookie cutter) and modified other parts of the kit (including embellishments made with a Cricut) to act as containers for the table. We got a bounce house, put out some of the cool Christmas presents the kids got and held it on a Sunday afternoon from 2 to 4 pm (fyi, this was during our really warm weather and it was a perfect breezy 76 degrees. Take THAT winter). This was the perfect small party to have and looked pretty without requiring too much work. And of course, I have already started planning my other son's 4th birthday party in April (you know, because even though I had previously stated no big parties until the 5th birthday, that was a total lie and I realize now that I am incapable of not holding some kind of elaborate party).

S-