Ella's First Birthday Party: Part 1 Details

Inspiration

My little wild child quickly became the "Little Monkey" of the house when she started climbing into everything. She's a crazy one and we love it. We had absolutely no idea someone so bossy and busy could bring so much joy to our lives. I wanted her first birthday party to have a monkey theme but wanted to stay away from the commercial items with cartoon characters. When I saw the DIY party printables with chevron stripes and monkeys from Paiges of Style, I knew I had found the perfect party theme! I chose aqua and pink as her party colors simply because when she wears aqua her baby blue eyes pop and that red hair becomes more red. I just love it.

  The Birthday Girl

Ella loved opening up her gifts. She didn't need a lot of help from the older girls. Getting into and ripping up things is her speciality. She knew it was her birthday or that the day was all about her because she woke up with a huge smile and stayed in the best mood all day! Her stranger anxiety disappeared and she greeted and hugged on everyone. 

Invitation

I had Ella photographed in an adorable monkey hat to capture her at this fun age! I loved them so much I decided to put the photo on the back of the invitation that we mailed out. I used several of her monkey photos as decoration throughout the party as well.

Decor

I daydreamed of a party outside but with 100 degree weather still hanging out in September, it would of been impossible. Ella is a southern belle born in Texas! We had the party inside and I set up four tables: welcome, food, desserts and the party favor station. Guests were greeted at the door with two dozen balloons and a fun "Happy Birthday Ella" wreath. Shoving that many balloons in your car is quite the adventure, let me tell you! It was pretty windy so the balloons ended up under our porch for most of the day but they reminded me of the movie Up when I put them out! That movie is special to me because for the longest time I thought I would be like Ellie and never have my own biological babies. Here I was hanging balloons for my kids birthday party! Special moment for this mama.

A monkey (with a special birthday hat that Ella refused to wear) greeted everyone when they walked in with a chalkboard that read "Welcome to my very first birthday party! Love, Ella." Some of my favorite decorations were the "Keep Calm and Go Bananas" posters, the ribbon backdrop for the dessert table, pink and aqua balloons, chevron stripes on just about everything, Ella's monthly photo banner, and the antique aqua mason jars! My grandmother and I love hydrangeas. She always has them in her yard and they bring back a crazy nostalgia to me. I placed pink hydrangeas with white roses in the mason jars and put them in several locations throughout the party.

Drinks

I combined my love for mason jars and chalkboard paint to have the antique aqua mason jars with chalkboard labels. Guests had the option of lemonade, raspberry lemonade, and sweet tea. I also had two buckets below the food table with Capri Suns and water bottles for the party foul people that didn't want to drink out of the fun mason jars. Just kidding, kinda! I also should add that I was very pleased with the monkey that I drew on the chalkboard. It may of taken me nine times to get it right but I put in a lot of time drawing that ridiculously amazing monkey!

Food

Something that was really important to me was not spending hours in the kitchen on Ella's birthday. Her birthday fell on a Saturday so we wanted to do her party that weekend but it was her very first birthday so I wanted to spend hours cuddling, playing and kissing her cheeks that morning. And I did. Sorry Martha Stewart. All of the food was simple and easy.

The menu included: deli (turkey, ham, etc) and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut out in the shape of monkey heads, monkey bread (recipe here), banana bread, fresh fruit and veggies, banana chips, pink frosted circus animal cookies, chip and pretzel assortment and last but certainly not least Gerber banana puffs for the babies!

Dessert Table

One of my favorite parts of planning Ella's birthday party was the dessert table. The fondant monkey cake topper was the cutest thing ever! I am not sure what is more adorable, the pink bow on top of her head with a red piece of hair to match Ella's or the little pearl bracelet! I made a ribbon banner to use as a backdrop to hide my plain kitchen wall and used bed sheets from WalMart as table cloths for two reasons: (1) I can reuse them for Ella's bed one day and (2) it was hard to find my party colors without having to make a tablecloth myself. I don't have the patience for all of that. I used the pillowcase to cover the hat box under the cake. I removed the lid from the hat box, stuck the hat box inside of the pillow, used a ponytail holder to make it snug around the box and shoved the ponytail part of the pillowcase inside of the box. Still with me? It was a perfect way to make the cake the focal point of the table. Did you notice the letters "Ella" on the hat box? Those were solid white chocolate and straight from heaven. The big hit was defiantly the banana split cupcakes! Everyone just loved them!

I had a little bit of cake drama that you can read more about on the "Part 4: Gossip" blog post in a couple of days. Believe it or not WalMart made that cake. I know! I used to be anti-WalMart but they saved the day by having it ready in one hour from the time I ordered it and that cake was actually delicious. I had no idea! Because of the cake drama- I ended up with a very plain cake so I used some pink and aqua Sixlets to add some color to the base of each layer of the cake. I was going to purchase fondant and make little balls or a big bow but my laziness won that war when I saw them sparkling in my kitchen about to be served in candy dishes.

Ella's party guests could choose from: monkey cake pops, cake push-up pops, white chocolate in the shape of cupcakes, sugar cookies, banana split cupcakes, chocolate covered oreos, double fudge brownies and chocolate cake (the top layer was Ella's smash cake and the bottom was for everyone else).

Games

Ella's party guests had the option to play any of the three games: Can Bean Bag Toss, Going Bananas Monkey Banana Toss, and Knock Em' Down! I purchased the games from Oriental Trading because I had a lot of reward points left from my teacher days and gave them a little makeover (see more details below in the DIY elements section). I wasn't very sure if the kids would enjoy them but they were all loved and kept the kiddos busy and out of trouble! Mission accomplished.

The Cake Smash Taste Test

Ella wasn't sure of what to do with this cake of hers. First she started eating the Sixlets around the base of the cake slowly. Very slowly. Cricket noise slowly.  I removed them because she would of sat there and picked off each Sixlet until next year. She slowly started to touch the icing and look at her hands. Touch cake, look at hands, touch cake, look at hands. Over and over. So I helped her out a little and opened the cake up for her to show her what was inside. When she saw the glorious insides- it was "oooooooh yeah" from there on. She liked the icing more than the chocolate cake just like her Daddy. She was so calm and unlike what we predicted, it was funny. Just chillin' with her cake licking her fingers some.

Party Favor Station

Before Ella's friends left the party, they stopped by the Party Favor Station. I really wanted the entire day to celebrate Ella so I had to have the party go home with them! The ex-teacher in me simply loves stations and the little guests lit up when they found out they could pick what they want! They grabbed a favor box and went to town.

Ella's friends could choose from: monkey bars, monkey stickers, crayons in the shapes of monkeys and bananas, monkey coloring book (DIY tutorial here), monkey hair clips, pink chocolate monkeys, chocolate covered oreos, monkey sugar cookies and first birthday "1" cookies!

DIY Elements

My OCD was not thrilled with the jungle colors of the monkey games from Oriental Trading so I recovered them with the digital paper that I printed from my package of the DIY printables from Paiges of Style. The first six photos above show the before and after! It was actually very fast to cover them because they come unassembled anyway. I wrapped the pieces individually like a present and then put them together. I recommend packaging tape simply because it's quick and it laminates the paper. I made little pillowcases for the bean bags that came with the games from the left over material from Ella's birthday hat. I painted the monkey and banana game pink as well with some pink paint I had left over from painting the letters in Ella's nursery. 

My original party favor was just going to be the coloring books before I discovered the world of sponsors. (More on those coming up on the Part 2: Sponsors and Part 4: Gossip post!) I loved making these coloring books. So easy and very cute if I don't say so myself! I plan on making these for all of Ella's future parties.

My favorite DIY element was the ribbon backdrop for the dessert table. I found the tutorial through google here. I did mine a little different by attaching my ribbon (with HeatBond on both sides) to another piece of ribbon instead of string because that seemed to be a little more sturdy to me. I never noticed how tall my ceilings were until I decided I wanted to go all the way up to the ceiling! Lots and lots of ribbon. I may or may not of almost fallen to my death when hanging that thing! 

Ella's photo banner was the easiest project of all. I took a piece of ribbon left over from the dessert table ribbon backdrop and used mini clothespins to attach each monthly photo. Each photo had a little border around it that matched the theme. You know- because I love my matchy-matchy stuff. :)

Check out the AMAZING vendors below and stay tuned for Parts 2: Sponsors, Part 3: GIVEAWAY and Part 4: Gossip!

Birthday Vendors
Photography: Melissa Pickens Photography
DIY Printables: Paiges of Style
Keep Calm Posters: Paiges of Style
Birthday outfit: The Lavender Lily
"Ella" Hair Clip: Lovella Bowtique ;)

Door Wreaths- Tattered Rose Art

Chalkboards: Sweet To My Heart
Tissue Poms: Tero Designs

Aqua Mason Jars: A Jewel's Quest
Chalkboard Labels on Mason Jars: Chalk About It
Pink Striped Straws: Shop My Little Love
Drink Pitchers: Willow House with Heather St.Clair

Galvanized Tub on Food Table: Skidly Bop

Pink Cupcake Stand used for Banana Puffs: OliviaDru

Birthday Cake: WalMart

Monkey Fondant Cake Topper: Cupcake Stylist

White Chocolate Candy Cupcakes: Candy's Candies

Edible Cookie Toppers on Sugar Cookies: Sweet N' Treats

Banana Split Cupcakes: Gigi's Cupcakes
White Cupcake Stands: Shop My Little Love
Polkadot Chocolate Covered Oreos & "Ella" White Chocolate Letters: Sweeties by Kim

Fondant Brownie Toppers: Devany's Designs

Monkey Cake Pops: Cake Pop My Heart
Cake Push Pop Containers: Fun Favors

Wood Boxes used on dessert table: Buttercup Marketplace

Party Favor Boxes: The Homespun Hostess
Monkey Hair Clips: Ava Bowtique

Monkey Crayons: Scribbler Crayons

Pink Chocolate Monkey Favors: Fun Favors

Monkey Chocolate Covered Oreos: LaFuffie's Boutique

Monkey Sugar Cookies: Delicious Dozen

"1" Cookies: Sweet Dream Buttercream