Owen's First Birthday: The Crafts!

Alright, might as well get this blog officially started, right??
(And if anyone knows how to flip pictures around so they're right side up... Let me know!!!!!)

And what's better than kicking it off with my son's first birthday Disney extravaganza!

This past Saturday we hosted a Mickey Mouse themed party at our house. I made most of the decorations: simple felt table runners, signage, pennant banners for the various tables, and cupcakes! Of course I didn't get everything I wanted to done, but I'm (slowly) learning that if it's not there people won't notice!

My mom was awesome enough to make this awesome Birthday Balloon Wreath to greet guests at the front door! We bought a Mickey Mouse from Walmart and since the wreathe was big enough, we just popped him in the center! And now we can switch it out for all birthday themes and even hang it for Mom and Dad's birthdays too!

 We had some signs along our walkway with some typical Mickey phrases.

Once inside, we had our little entryway table cleared off and filled with the Mickey Thank You goodies! We only had 4 little ones at the party, so their goody bags were a bit fuller than the typical ;) For the adults, I made some of my infamous cookies, packaged them, and sealed them with a Thank You sticker! (They read: "Thank you for making my day mouse-ka-tastic! Love, Owen")

Our huge formal living room is still acting as the play area, so we kept the play mat and toys in there for the little ones to play with and then set up the photo booth in the second half of the room! (It's a big, long room!) Presents were piled on our dresser-turned-buffet table and since I'm lame and I love guest books of any kind, I bought "Happy Birthday to You" by Dr. Seuss and had everyone sign it! And of course, Mickey ear party hats and a Happy Birthday Owen banner hung above!

I also made a chicken wire frame and filled it with pictures of Owen and his firsts and some favorites. That thing filled up quickly! I was going to tie strips of paper/ribbon and write to explain the pictures, but not enough room/time for that!

In the living room, all the mantel decorations were taken down and replaced with sunflowers and a Mickey balloon centerpiece! This is the only place in the whole house that I can keep flowers since the cats love to get into them! I spray painted old timey Barq's root beer bottles that my grandma found at her Sam's Club. I love love love how they turned out! My mom made the Mickey head and the red and yellow balloon ball in the same way she did the wreathe.

I made the banner that hung on the fireplace. Each Mickey head has a picture of Owen on his month birthdays! The black Mickey heads are the 3-D folded paper pinwheel things and everything else I used my handy dandy Cricut for!

We moved our kitchen table and put our desserts on it. The rest of the food was outside, but we didn't want the frosting to melt on the cupcakes or bugs to get into them! Cupcakes were homemade and nothing fancy with decoration. The hubs made the Mickey oreos!

Outside was where we had our Hot Diggity Dog bar! I moved the dresser from our guest bedroom outside, added a felt runner and some Mickey art and voila! The art is actually a huge bag from the Disney store that I taped around some canvas! Seriously, easiest decoration ever. The runner was simply felt sheets sewn together, another easy 10-minute project for the win!

We had the usual condiments, cheese, onions, and chili for people to top their hot dogs with! I even splurged a little and purchased a vintage hot dog roller for $30. I figure we have a lot of parties and hot dog eating in our future and we might as well make it fun!

For the outside decorations, my mom and I made a long paper chain to hang on our fence. I ordered various paper lanterns from Luna Bazaar and I am definitely keeping them out there until the end of summer!

Yep, we even tied bows to the plastic tablecloths!

Well, I think that's it for now! I'll post on the actual party itself and our awesome Disneyland trip later!