Foster’s First Birthday-You Are My Sunshine

Well, it happened…Foster had his first ever birthday party! I have to say that I have never taken a birthday celebration as seriously as I did his first (no offense Aaron). But can you really blame me?!  It was the first year that we celebrated the birth of my little boy and oh was it a long, long birth. So, dang it, we were going to celebrate the day that my little perfect baby boy entered into the world! Plus my mom always made birthdays a big deal and I definitely plan to pass along that tradition to Foster.

I started preparing for his party about two months ahead of time. Thankfully my sister, Erin, is super great at being crafty and gifted in the DIY department because I am not…at all. Well actually, all the women in my family are good at it. I think that gene just skipped me. It’s a bummer but thankfully they’re all generous with their crafty gift, so it all works out.

I knew a year ago that I wanted the theme of his party to be “You are My Sunshine.” It’s my favorite song to sing to him and it’s just the truth. Not to sound to cheesy but he is really my little sunshine. So, that’s just what we did.

Erin and I had a planning meeting and I brought all my Pinterest inspired ideas that I knew I could not make happen on my own (remember my lack of craftiness). Well, just coming up with a plan with her gave me tons more confidence. Here’s the outcome of what we decided:

The focal point was the little counter top that separates my living room from my kitchen. On this we (Erin) put a cute little chalkboard that said “You Are My Sunshine” on it. She also made a little banner that said “Lil Sun Shine” and added some cute little candles and Sunflowers.  The finishing touch were the two sunshine balloons I found on Etsy. I was thrilled with the finished look.

The cake was so stinking cute and really affordable. Just a heads up for you, Sams has really reasonably priced cakes and cupcakes. I opted for the little five inch round with twelve cupcakes around it.

The little cake served as a perfect smash cake for Foster and the guests ate the cupcakes. I just bought plain white because I didn’t want to deal with food dye and I knew we were going to add a little Erin touch to them.

Erin and I made the little sunshines cupcake toppers to go on top of each one. Then I bought the One Glitter Candle from Amazon to go on top of the smash cake.

To add a little pop to the table I found these little yellow tins in the dollar section at Target (God bless Target) and yellow candy at the Dollar Store.

Once again I was so excited about the finished product!!

The highchair banner turned out way better than any of the ones I was looking at to buy. Yes, you guessed it Erin made this too! She just happened to have this adorable string and banner then added the lettering to it with glitter. And once again…I was so excited with the outcome. Like I said anything I searched for on Etsy was just too complicated for my taste plus they were expensive!! Thank God for Erin and her DIY talents! I keep telling her she needs to start her own shop.

Photo background and props is what everyone saw as soon as they entered our house because it’s the biggest window in the living room. I bought the turquoise plastic material from Party City and the roll was huge, so I’ll be able to use it for a long time. Then Erin cut out the letters with black paper and glitter paper. She was super creative because if you look closely you can see what the glitter letter spell. Impressive right?! I mean she thinks of everything!

This area served as a photo back drop as well as a focal point.

She also came equipped with fun photo props! Here’s me, my sisters and mom testing them out. Photo props for the win!

The cousins all agreed that the photo props were a great finishing touch. How cute are they!?

The birthday crown was so stinking cute and a perfect touch! Erin just used navy felt to cut out the crown and added a glitter one in the middle. To make sure it fit and stayed on she put elastic in the back.

Foster enjoyed the icing more than the actual cake part. He’s taking after his mom and granny. Way to go son. Sugar lovers unite!

I’m pretty sure he also loved having everyone look at him while he ate. At one point he just started smiling and laughing. I’m pretty sure it was a combination of being super happy and the fact that he was having the biggest sugar rush of his life.

The presents were flowing but as per usual Foster was way more interested in boxes and bags. I’m sure one day we’ll look back on this and say remember when you were entertained by the packaging. But for real, it is really cute to see how excited he gets about the little thing…that’s my boy!

Everyone was so generous and we have been exploring all the fun to be had with each new toy! We have entertainment for months!!

The frame with Happy 1st Birthday and the date was one of my favorite things. I love how it marks the occasion and date for you so when you look back at pictures you’ll know exactly when they were taken. Most of our guests were able to take a picture with Foster, so we can show him one day.

I am absolutely thrilled with how Foster’s first birthday party turned out. We were able to spend it with family, lots of fun and of course sunshine! As my dad would say, “We have been done good by God! “