First Birthday Beach Party

Back in September my daughter turned one and because we are in the age of Pinterest I (cheaply) went all out. My cousin is a wonderful photographer and offered to take pictures at the party for me. I have finally gotten around to doing a post about it, exactly 2 months after the fact. As I was trying to think of a theme, I wanted it to be something that I knew my daughter really liked and since she could care less about TV there really weren't any characters that she connects with at all. Two things she absolutely loved were going to the beach and cats. I decided to go with the beach theme because it was nearing the end of summer and I knew I could get a lot of what I needed on clearance. At the very last minute we had to move the party to a classroom at our church as the party was scheduled for 4:30 pm and it was still raining at 2 pm. It was a good thing we waited to set everything up. The colors for the party were pink, orange, yellow, green and blue and this is where I was really able to tie them in with the table setting. Paper goods came from the Dollar store and Wal-mart and table cloths from Party City. I also had foam flowers from the Dollar store as coasters and Tiki torches that I had planned to use outside to ward off the mosquitoes. Down the center of the table were colorful sand toys from the Dollar Store and at each end was a bubble play set.

We have two yard tents that I was planning to use outside for the food and drinks and we decided to put one up inside anyways. It really gave the room a more fun feel. It is not fully decorated in this picture but you get the idea!

I matted pictures of the Dida from each month of her life and hung them on one of the walls. I am going to put the pictures into a scrap book later. These would have been hung on a fence at the outdoor location. 

Another part of the scrap book will be pictures of all of the guests as well as birthday greetings that they wrote. There was a station for this set up at the entrance to the room. This table also held the simple favors which were hair flowers for the ladies, pre-filled water guns for the men and bubbles for the two children (and my husband's drink). If we weren't in such a hurry with the changed plan I know we would have gotten a lot better pictures. 

 It was still a really fun party, especially after dinner when I passed out the water guns. A full fledged war broke out across the table. My 85 year old grandfather with Alzheimers was having the most fun I've ever seen him have. Here is my other grandfather trying to be sneaky!

I also set up a present area with a blanket on the floor and a beach chair that I picked up for $5. The Dida was given a bathtub bubble machine at her baby shower so I brought that out as well. 

She really enjoyed playing with the bubbles and wasn't scared of them for the first time.

The menu for the party consisted of:

Terayaki Chicken

Smoked Sausage

Hawaiian Rolls

Veggie Kabobs with Homemade Ranch

Fruit Kabobs with Cream Cheese Marshmallow Fluff Dip

Fish and Chips (Goldfish and Potato Chips)

Potato Salad

Everything was served in plastic beach pails with the shovels as the scoops. I got them all from the Dollar Store or the dollar section at Target and I'm using them now to store my daughter's toys in because they match the colors of her room. I made a little flip-flop sign to label each of the dishes.

For dessert there were Mini Jello Beaches with Vanilla Wafer Sand in the bottom and a Little Mermaid cake that I ordered from Wal-mart.

I also made my daughter a birthday crown to wear when she ate her cake. I got the base from the Dollar Store and added the flowers which are the same ones that I used for the hair flower favors. They are made from Hawaiian leis that I took apart.

Here are two of my favorite picture from the day - my daughter brushing her hair with her new brush, and my mom holding my daughter so her great-grandfather can give her a kiss!