let's parrrrrty: the details

We had Pearson's first birthday party today and we had SO much fun!! 

I took over 300 pictures so I'm going to divide up the pictures into a few post so it's not the world's longest post ever!!

I'll start with the details....

It seems like now that we have Pinterest parties, weddings, showers gifts, etc. have gotten out of control.  I was determined to have a cute party for Pearson but keep it within a low budget and not go overboard.  I might be biased, but I think his party turned out pretty darn cute!!

I ordered his invitations from Paper Coterie. When I ordered them, they were doing free invitations!! I just had to pay $5 shipping.

 I took the picture for his invitation, my Mom made his little onesie and I got his shorts from Target on Clearance for $5.

I made this bubble wreath, that I saw on Pinterest, for the front door.  My mother in law wrapped one of his shower gifts in this red burlap so I re-used it for this wreath.  I also re-used the P from a diaper wreath from one of my showers.  All I had to buy for this wreath was a foam wreath and sewing pins!! It was about a $7 project!

For the mantle I filled a few picture frames (that were in various places in the house) with a newborn picture and two one-year-old pictures.  I printed his monthly chair pictures and hung them on ribbon.  I used ribbon and clips I already had.  So this project cost me a few bucks for the pictures!!

 I got this idea for a "Birthday Guest Book" on Pinterest! I used my meal planning menu frame for the poem and I used another frame I made at MOPS to display his inviation. 

I thought the poem was so cute.  It said....

Stop here you see and

write a very special message to Me!

A Birthday Wish or just say Hi, 

to your very favorite

ONE year old guy!

On the front or back pages

It's something I will treasure 

for all of my ages. 

 I got this book at Half-Price Books for $4.99.  Everywhere it said Pirate Pete, I just put stickers on it to say Pirate Pearson!! 

I printed his birthday banner from a website that had lots of free pirate party printables!! I used cardstock and ribbon that I already had in my scrapbooking stash! Free project!!

I just cut out a white circle to cover up the skulls that were on the original banner, then made lots of color copies.  I used my Mom's letter stencils that she uses for her diaper bags to cut out the letters. 

 I also made a high chair banner and just hot glued it to his high chair.

I made red velvet cupcakes and put them in cupcake holders that I printed from the same website I got the banner from. I thought the little ship cupcakes turned out so cute.  I displayed the cakes on tiered plate holders that I already had and just used my everyday red Fiesta dishes.  I love how my red and black kitchen really looked good with all his party decorations. 

 My Mother-in-Law has made a 1st birthday cake for all of her grandkids, so she was super excited to make one for Pearson.  I think his little pirate smash cake turned out so cute!! I love that she put little goldfish on the side in the water because that really helped him dig into his cake!!

For the entry hall, I re-used netting that was on a shower gift to hang all of his monthly pirate bear pictures.  

 All of the decorations on the table are decorations from Pearson's room that I just moved around!

 I made Pearson's birthday hat by (loosely) following this tutorial. All of the material and puff balls were things that my Mom already had in her sewing room!  Free party hat!! I'm going to make a party hat for my niece's 1st birthday in a few weeks and I'll post a tutorial on how I made my hat!

For the party favors I designed a little bag tag in photoshop and filled little bags (that I already had) with Rolos (aka treasure).  The little bag tags said, "Thanks for coming to me Parrrty! -Cap'n Pearson"

 For the meal: We bought meat and BBQ sauce from Spring Creek.  We also had potato salad, baked beans, kettle chips, cheetos, sweet 'n hot pickles and rolls.  My grandma made fruit salad, my Mom made cole-slaw, and my other grandma made her famous homemade peach ice-cream! I got all of the red and black paper good from The Dollar Tree.

So as you can see, I think I did pretty good job of sticking to a low budget, but still making it a cute party!! I love the way everything turned out.