A Non-Pinterest-Worthy 1st Birthday Party

At the end of June we celebrated Colton's first birthday (wow -where did time go?!) The common question we got leading up to the party was "What's the theme?!" No theme. My son is a year old, he doesn't need a birthday party with a theme because all he really wanted was to play - play with his family, play with paper, play with toys.  Not to mention, the first birthday party celebration is partially for the parents to celebrate surviving their first year of parenthood.

Instead of a theme, we opted for decorating the party with blue and green and adding a few ideas I've come across along the way. And, since our house is small we hosted the party in the garage so everyone got to be outside and we could make a mess without worry.

A garage + no theme + average photography skills = a non-pinterest worthy party.

No matter what, we had a lot of fun which is success in our minds.

THE DECORATIONS
I made the decorations the week leading up to the party.  I had these ideas in mind, it was just taking the time to make them.  The "Oh Boy What a Year" sign I re-used for his 1-year pictures.

  Banner Pattern

THE CAKE

My child doesn't eat cake, or bread, and prefers salty over sweet. (Hard to believe he is my child)  While he enjoyed playing with the cake, I don't think he took a bite.  It was a lot more fun to feed to our dog, who truly enjoyed the cake.  Way to share kiddo!

Oh, and my husband and I have different ideas of how we clean up our child.  While I ran into the house to get warm soapy water, my husband took him to the hydrant. And yes, it appears we let our child play with forks... please don't turn us in, we really love our boy.

GIFTS

Opening gifts wasn't his favorite birthday activity... maybe next year.  His favorite gift was his car, mostly because it has a steering wheel - maybe I should have had a steering wheel themed party?  Once the car was put together nothing else mattered and tears were shed when he had to get out of it.  One of the gifts we gave him was the water table - this is a perfect outside gift, we have so much fun playing outside.

OUR 1-YEAR-OLD