Vincent’s First Birthday Party

Vincent’s first birthday theme was airplane! I thought to do this theme because he absolutely loves things that fly in the air. It all started when he was a newborn baby and he took notice of our ceiling fans. Daddy would make them spin by hand to get him to calm down. When he was 6 months old he went on his first airplane ride to Hawaii and did very well (despite pooping himself multiple times!). A month later we were at Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose and he was obsessed with this swirling airplane mobile! Anyway, so it was a perfect theme and I saw lots of inspiring ideas on Pinterest and party idea websites.

INVITATION

Vincent Airplane Invite
I made a logo for “VincentAir” and created a mock passenger ticket with all the details you might find on a boarding pass. I bought some airmail envelopes to put it in for that extra special touch. A few recipients were fooled into thinking it was an actual airline! Haha! Mission accomplished, i guess?

PARTY FOOD

Vincent's First Birthday Party

Decided to keep it easy and do a “make your own sandwich” bar with all the fixings. We had turkey, ham, and chicken deli meats, 4 types of cheese, along with some bacon, avocado, tomatoes, red onion, butter lettuce, craisins, and pickles. We had Ruffles potato chips, tortilla chips, bean dip, and salsa. A fruit spread in which i tried to make a “rainbow”. My mom made a wheat thin cracker with blue cheese and creamcheese topped with candied pecan and pear. We also had some homemade chex mix.

DESSERT TABLE

Vincent's First Birthday Party

I bought the table cloth on clearance from K-Mart after Fourth of July.

Making Cookies

Cookies - Airplane, #1, cloud

My mom and I made sugar cookies cut into airplanes, clouds, number 1s and mini airplanes. It took us several hours to finish baking and decorating but it was a lot of fun. I forgot to take more close-up photos of them though — these are the last ones i had left…all the “cool” designs i had given away.

Vincent's First Birthday

Vincent's First Birthday

The “smash” cake for Vinny was made from a spring-foam cake pan. Half the batter was died blue. I cut out a shape of cloud and put white frosting and 4 little plastic airplane candle holders i got online. Completed the look with a sparkly #1 candle.

Sky Jello

I found this idea on Pinterest to make Sky Jello. Just raspberry blue jello and homemade whip cream that you stick to the side of the cup before you pour in the quick-set jello. Super yummy and fun!

Vincent's First Birthday Party

The cupcakes were box-mix because i was too lazy and we had to make a bunch of cupcakes! Half where chocolate, half were yellow. I made little flags for them using my Cameo cutter (best invention ever!)

DECORATIONS

VincentAir sign on front door

I made signs for the front door, the bathroom (lavatory), the candy game, the favor area (baggage claim), and the computer (photo booth).

Baggage Claim Sign

I used the diagonal lines from the invite and added some clouds to the background. I actually made a new “VincentAir” logo using pilot “wings” since the star alone was kind of boring me. 🙂

Vincent's First Birthday Party

Our kitchen/bar area has a few pegs to hang things near the ceiling/wall area. So i used my Cameo to cut some airplane and cloud shapes in various design patterns, then took some red/white twine and hung them. I loved the way they came out! The first day i hung them up Vincent took notice of them RIGHT AWAY — he smiled and leaned his head back. Jeff said when the wind blew them, he would start laughing and giggling.

Vincent's First Birthday Party

I made my first pennant sign! Happy 1st Birthday! Then cut out the letters for Vincent’s name.

Vincent's First Birthday

I thought of the idea to create a big airplane use the windows to display Vinny’s month photos. I used drafting tape and big art roll paper to create it. Then cut out the shape along the edge and tacked it to the wall.

Vincent's First Birthday

I bought this star decoration from Target during Fourth of July. My mom bought a few airplane related toys to use as decoration. Patti gave us the airplane bear! Notice the pilot hat.

Pinwheels

I placed red and blue pinwheels outside our house along the path to our door. I also bought a blue and silver mylar airplane balloon from Ebay, but i didnt get a photo of it! It flew outside — well more like nose dived constantly to the grass since it was a little windy outside!

ACTIVITIES

How many sixlets?

I had a “guess the amount of candy in the jar” game set up near the entrance.  The correct amount of candies in the jar as 1052, with the best guess being Markus’ daughter Rachel at 500 something!

Mom brought the “Styro-flyers” book that had punch-out airplanes you could make from the book. It also had instructions on how to make a airplane from a big mac box. LOL! I think this is from the ’80s.

Vincent's First Birthday

I bought balsa wood airplanes for the kids to assemble and decorate. I had a bunch of markers and star and letter stickers for them to use. I wish i got a photo of them decorating because it looked like they were having fun! I saw some pretty nice designs.

FAVORS

Favors

For the kids, i bought these cool containers that matched my color scheme. I bought some “world” stress balls, a compass ring, a pen, bubbles, red and white lollipop, and a candy airplane.

Favors

This was made from two pieces of juicy fruit gum, a tootsie roll or a smartie (i used either), a rubber band, and two lifesavers. Pretty easy to make and very fitting for my theme!

Clothespin Airplane Favor

I also made clothespin airplanes. This i placed in the kid goodie basket, and i also made a separate board to display these for the adult party-goers to take home as favors.

Clothespin Airplane Favor

Again i used my Cameo to make a little tag on the end that said “Vincent’s First Birthday, 2012”

Die cut flag sign

On the flip side, i put “Thanks for flying with us!” I used the red and white twine (purchased on Amazon for pretty cheap!) to tie it to the end. I loved the way these turned out! Super fun and easy to make.

THE PARTY

Vincent's First Birthday Party

My parents, Jeff’s parents, and my sister Susan flew in to celebrate Vinny’s birthday. My mom helped out a lot with the baking and prepping for the party. I worked hard for a few weeks before hand to get the favors figured out, make the decorations and plan the menu. I stayed up till 2am on some nights using my cool new Cameo cutter! Kinda obsessed with that thing. We took a family photo and tried to “recreate” the original  from 1 year ago when he was a few weeks old.

The party was on Saturday from 11am-2pm. We weren’t quite ready at 11am with the food but wasn’t running too much behind. Though i feel like i didnt have enough time to take photos of all my hard work!

Vincent's First Birthday Party

Everyone ate and mingled. The kids played in the sunroom. The other smaller kids in attendance were Olivia (10 months, above), Charlotte (3 months — below with Bonnie), and Lilia (18 months).

Vincent's First Birthday Party

Vincent's First Birthday Party

I ordered Vinny a really neat shirt from Etsy with his name and the number 1 on it, but…. he was wearing a red bib the whole party! So no one got to see it. Wah wah!

SINGING HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Vincent's First Birthday Party

Vincent's First Birthday Party

Vincent's First Birthday Party

We gathered the guests into the dining room to sing happy birthday to Vinny. I think he was a little stunned by all the people in the room but he didnt freak out or anything, just looked little confused.

Vincent's First Birthday Party

After the song, Jeff and i blew the candle out then took the decorations off so he could eat the cake. He grabbed at it slowly at first, then started really digging in and eating! He loves his cake…

Here is the video:

OPENING GIFTS

Vincent's First Birthday Party

Vincent had help from Olivia and Dad to open his gifts. He was so funny. After opening one gift he insisted on sitting on top of it.

Vincent's First Birthday Party

He got some pretty cool stuff — a pop-up tent (Ikea) from Markus & family, a walker/activity center from Angie.

Vincent's First Birthday

We got lots of airplane/helicopter related toys from “Little People” brand (we didnt have any duplicates, amazingly!) A few shirts and PJs, books, dump trucks, cars, puzzles and more! My cousin Sandee got hime a bunch of leapfrog toys and books. Even though we stated gifts were not needed,… uh… i think everyone gave something! Vinny loves his new toys!

Vincent's First Birthday Party

Here is this cool ladybug that shoots bubbles out it’s butt from Carrie and Roger.

 

Overall the party was a big success! I had planned weeks and weeks… hemmed and hawed over so many details, and i am very pleased with the way everything came out! Party planning was more fun than i thought it would be — can’t wait for next year when he’ll be more aware of whats going on and maybe have more of his own buddies attending.

 


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Comments ( 2 )

WOW! This is all so adorable! Nice job, Diane. Happy birthday Vincent! 🙂

Heather  |  Aug 25, 2012 at 2:53 pm

I found this while I was searching for an idea for my baby’s 1st birthday. You’re a great mom. I liked it a lot. I think I found my dish idea: “help yourself sandwich”. WOW, everything here was just great. Wish your family all the best. Thank you.

Guest from LA  |  Jan 06, 2013 at 2:14 am

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