Can you tell me how to get to Jaydran's 1st Birthday Party

This past Saturday, on his actual 1st birthday (February 4th!) we had Jay's 1st birthday party!

We did an Elmo and Sesame Street friends theme and had the party in our big finished basement. We invited quite a bit of people, but it was mostly just family that came, which is okay - Jay was more concerned about the cake and his new toys anyway to really care who was there, lol...

So anyway, here's the decor:

When you walked up to our house, the 1st thing you saw was the balloon wreath I made:

Which was inspired by the balloon wreath that Lindsay (the Undomestic Chica) had made and posted about a few weeks ago for her kiddo's birthday party and I combined it with this sign idea I saw on Pinterest.

I'd say I did a pretty good job combining the two!

Next, on our kitchen table, I displayed the favor bags, hats, noise makers and Cookie Monster and Elmo (and later Jay's smash cake).

 

 Cookie Monster's sign says "Welcome to Jaydran's 1st Birthday Party!" while Elmo's sign says "Brought to you by the letter "J" and the number 1!"

I got the ideas for the characters with signs as well as the favor bags from these ideas on Pinterest:

I think they turned out pretty well!

The view as you go downstairs to the party:

 

 

And then the basement:

 

 

 

I thought the banner was too cute - I LOVED that the "B" is a cookie pattern with a bite taken out of it too, lol...

 

 

Jay's "Throne"

 

Our bar with the punch bowl and cake displayed.

 

The food table. The party was from 2-4pm so we kept it simple with finger foods including some fruit medleys and a tray of veggies, crackers and cheese with veggie dip.

The cakes:

 

 I had our cake lady make these and considering she makes her own special frosting and her cakes just taste THE BEST, these 2 combined cost less than my ice cream cake I had for my birthday last summer! She also made our wedding cake as well as my baby shower cake. Seriously guys, she makes THE BEST cakes at the best prices in town!

 

Jay's Attire:

 

So he wouldn't stay still long enough for me to get a good shot of his clothes, but we had a Level 1 Human onesie with the official level 1 human WoW stats custom made on Cafepress. I paired it with a pair of brown Garanimal athletic-type pants.

Onto the party!

 

Jay playing with my cousin and some one of his new toys from mommy and daddy.

 

Showing him a card before he opens the present.

 

Excited about the Sesame Street wrapping paper.

 

One of my best friends came with her 2 kids, the youngest is about 11 months older than Jay - she helped him open his presents as he couldn't quite figure it out by himself.

 

 

 

Giving Jay his cake

 

Funny story: Jay LOVES to "sing." And he was a little confused when everyone sang Happy Birthday to him. And by the time he caught on the song was over. But he still wanted to sing! So... he led/directed everyone in a chorus of "Ahhhhhhhhh" for a bit, lol...

 

He was a little hesitant at first as to what to do with his cake, as we try not to make too much of a mess with our food at meal time and anything real messy we usually feed to him. But once he got the idea he was all over it!

 

 

 He ate/destroyed about half of his smash cake and kept going in and out of a food/sugar coma, lol...

 

After the cake, we got him cleaned up and dressed again and he was ready to go play! My parents got him a Cozy Coupe, as I had one when I was little. We have the floor board in it right now though, as he kinda slid out of the bottom and got stuck under it - oops! He also got a Thomas the Train play tent that my sister and her soon-to-be fiance got him too! 

 

I'd say he made out quite well and has plenty of toys to last him throughout the year, since the next big event to get toys is Christmas! I also think his party turned out pretty well! I was a bit bummed at first that we didn't have more friends with young kids show up and as we could have guessed, only 1 of hubby's 3 brothers that live in town made an effort to come (I swear, my sis's soon-to-be fiance is more of an uncle to Jay than his actual uncles, save for his aunt and uncle that live hours away as that's understandable), but Jay didn't seem to mind and he seemed to enjoy all the Sesame Street decor and his party in general so I think that made it a success! Hubby thought I went a bit overboard with the decorating, but Jay's face lit-up when he saw it, not to mention my father-in-law complimented me on all the work I did as well.

So, that's the last of Jay's 1st holidays... hard to believe my baby's a toddler and a 1-year old!