The Party Planning Post

You guys, I am so psyched about Liam's first birthday party. 

I came up with lots of ideas and at first, I thought I was going to do a carnival themed party, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to save that for a birthday that he'll actually remember and enjoy. (Oh, and I'll be 32 weeks pregnant on his birthday, so I think a party without complicated logistics would be best.) This year, simple is better.

Well, as simple as it can get, if I'm planning it.

After poking around on some kids' party planning websites, Etsy & Pinterest (my new obsession!) I decided on a Goldfish themed pool party. Cute, Liam loves to swim, and we can have the party at my parents' neighborhood pool so that no one has the burden & stress of hosting.

Without further ado, here are his invitations: (click to enlarge):

Stickers for envelopes & napkin rings:

For the decorations, I'll make aqua and orange tissue pom poms & get polka dot ballons: 

Definitely want a few of these:

I've started cutting out my own teal & orange circles to make this garland:

I'll use these to label the food:

Along with aqua and orange tablecloths, plates, napkins & flatware, I want to order some of these:

Liam's Smash Cake will look something like this:

And we'll have cupcakes with these:

I plan on teaching myself to "flood" cookies & if I'm successful, I'd love to make these:

I bought a big stack of these buckets for $1 at Michaels to use for party favors:

I'll use these tags:

I plan on filling them with some fun things like these aqua & orange water bottles (Also $1 at Michaels). I'm considering personalizing each kid's bottle by cutting their name out in vinyl (I can do this with my Cricut) and sticking it to the bottle:

And, I found these fishy pool rings-- at $2.25 each, I plan on putting one in each of the favor buckets, plus throwing a few in the pool for decoration.

Real goldfish are also in the plans for party favors, for kids whose parents who give their blessing to have them as pets. (Yes, I will ask before the party. One mom has already said yes, but I need to check with others.)

I have more ideas, but I'm trying to reign myself in-- the good news is that I already have quite a bit done, and the party is almost 3 months away. If I can just try to work on a few things each week, I'll get everything done in plenty of time. In the meantime, I'm having a great time brainstorming and adding ideas to my Pinterest board  (My username is StefBlakely.) If you're on Pinterest, let me know so I can follow you!

************************************************

*Full disclosure*

I know just enough about Photoshop to get me in trouble. I can fairly easily take someone else's design and modify it to be my own. I did not draw this little fishy myself. I "borrowed" it from someone and created backgrounds and layers and text to create my own paper products-- which for someone who has training in Photoshop would probably take a few minutes. For me, it takes hours. I'm proud of the work that I'm teaching myself to do. I just want to mention that I would never sell a design that wasn't entirely my own...but I will gladly use it for my own parties.