Last year we celebrated the May 24 weekend for a whole different reason, when our little guy was born. This year it was an awesome weekend to celebrate his first birthday!
This being such a special occasion I wanted to make sure that we celebrated it properly. No I didn't hire a clown or have a petting zoo, or invite 100 kids to the event. But I did get balloons and decorations and a cake and invited all the close family members who we thought would want to join in the celebration.
Here are my steps to planning a birthday bash ...
Step 1: Invitations
We of course started with the invitations. A quick Google search quickly made me realize that just an ordinary birthday invite would not be good enough for my little man.I needed something that was going to show off my cute little boy. This brought me to Costco's photo centre website. While they didn't have any great birthday invite cards, I was able to transform one of their templates to suit my needs.
They turned out amazing and were actually ready in only a couple of hours. Cost for the 25 flat cards was $11.99 and well worth it.
We quickly sent out the invitations and then waited to hear from people. And waited ... and waited ... and waited. Hello people you are suppose to call and tell people if you are attending or not. (sorry rant over)
Step 2: It's All About the Food
Simple and easy is the name of the game when it comes to food at a birthday party (or well any party really). Even though it is going to be a beautiful May afternoon I have decided that my slow cooker will take the lead for this event instead of my BBQ.
Now the recipe needs to be just as simple and of course uber yummy. I also want to make something that was paleo, but not something that would make people notice that they are eating paleo.
This lead me to a fantastic recipe I had tried out back in January of Crockpot TexMex Carnitas from Life as a Plate blog. You can get the recipe here.
In the past (aka pre-working mama days) I would have made all the guacamole and salsa to go with this item, but now I don't have time for that. Thankfully there is once again Costco to help me with this.
Step 3: Decorations
There are two main ones in my area, Party City and Amazing Party Store. After many many hours of looking at the online inventory, Amazing Party Store was the winner of the where will I shop contest. It really helps that this store is only a 3 minute drive from my house as well.
It is amazing how quickly the cost for decorations adds up. Plus you can't have a first birthday party without having lots of helium balloons. Those have to be pre-ordered to make sure that they can do them on the big day. Also I learned through research that not all helium balloon suppliers are equal. Some balloons last for days others may only last for hours.
Step 4: Relax and Enjoy the Party
I think this one is pretty self explanatory. Spend all day running around if you must but when the first guest arrive that is when everything is done (finished or not) and you relax and enjoy the party. Hopefully you get lucky and the guest of honour is in a good mood.