Waylon’s Winnie the Pooh Themed First Beeday Party
Waylon turned one year old on Friday! So, on Saturday we had a small family birthday party to celebrate. I believe in celebrating birthdays. I find it fun to plan events like this and enjoy the process usually. This year was slightly different because Waylon’s birthday falls on our last weeks of school. My days are overwhelmed with testing, end of the year festivities, grading, packing up my classroom, and I’m just burnt out from the school year in general.
Putting this party felt more like a chore than fun for me, but I still think it turned out well, and enjoyed the day so much. My goal was to keep in small and spend around $200, which was my budget for Holden’s 2nd “off the Wall” Birthday party. Overtime we will have too many birthdays, too frequently, to spend more money than that on each one, and if you’re feeding guests it’s not hard to go through that budget quickly.
Here is the break down:
I spent $107.00 at Walmart buying all of the food we planned to serve. Hamburgers, hotdogs, buns, etc. The cake, chips, utensils, ice cream and miscellaneous party essentials like table cloths. We had the party at my father-in-law’s home to use his pool, and he graciously had some fruit, a veggie tray, some jalapeño poppers and egg rolls for everyone as well. I laid out a table with plates, utensils, food and fixins’ for guests to make on their own. I labeled some of the food with Winnie the Pooh related names to incorporate the theme a bit more. I also framed some of Waylon’s cobbler smash and strawberry bath pictures on the tables, as well as his 12 month progression photos. This is something I only do for the first birthday.
I had decided on a Winnie the Pooh/bee/ honey birthday party because Pinterest is a problem. All of my decorations were based around that and came from either Etsy or Amazon. My husband made the hexagon shelf and Waylon’s 100 Acre Wood sign for me. This saved us a lot of money as I was pretty tempted to buy them on Etsy. He is pretty handy and also made several pieces for his Woodland/ Western nursery linked here. I was so impressed with how it turned out! In total I spent about $145.00 on all of the decorations, which put me a bit over budget, but it was his first birthday, and I went all out for Holden’s Wild One, so I’m not feeling too guilty about it.
I didn’t have too much to decorate; just a dessert table, so most of my decorations centered around this. The blue balloon garland came in a kit from Party City, and is very easy to put together. This is one of my favorite party trends, which I tested out for a friend’s bachelorette party this spring. I knew I wanted it for Waylon to look like the sky and clouds over his 100 Acre Wood sign and set up. I used sugar bees and paper lanterns to make little bee hives to hang, and used a sign I found on Etsy to be a backdrop. I am in love with this little quote and it always makes me cry.
One major way I save money while throwing a birthday party is to make my own cake. Waylon’s cake ended up being a little bit of a fiasco. It tipped over in the car, and melted in the heat, and I ran out of time so I didn’t get to attempt my tree effect, however it remained edible and Waylon loved it. My cake topper was made by my sister in laws co worker and turned out so cute! It was a gift from my sister in law so I saved money on the as well.(You can refer to my Pinterest page for what the inspiration behind the cake was.)
For entertainment we had the pool, which kept the boys busy and entertained for the entire day, but I also got an adorable pin the tail on the Eeyore game from Etsy that was perfect. I think our two year olds in attendance were too young to get the game, but I will save it for future parties.
For favors I wanted to do little jars of honey, but the cheapest option was to make it myself. Jars and honey spoons are from Amazon, and the tags for favors are from a shop called BabyontheWings on Etsy.
I also started a tradition for their birthdays where I write the boys a letter for each year and put it in the box for them to read later on. I also ask our family members to write them a letter to the future Waylon or Holden. I tell them to think about them at 18, or for graduation and think about what you’d like them to know from you. What you hope, wish, pray for them to know or to congratulate them on the next chapter. The hope is that they would have a letter from everyone close to them, so if something were to happen to someone we love and cherish a piece of them will still be apart of their big day when they get this box. It is unlikely that all of their great grandparents or that everyone we love will be there 18 years down the road. We know this first hand as we lost my grandpa this past year, and there are many other loved ones that we miss.
I hope that when Holden and Waylon open these boxes they will be full of letters, cards, mementos, pictures, and precious memories to represent their childhoods. Once they’re older I will decorate the boxes (currently just plain white photo boxes from Hobby Lobby) with things they love and that represent who they are. The box is sitting next to the Winnie the Pooh on the table for guests to put the letters in.
I know eventually my boys will want to pick their own theme, or will just like cake and presents at Chuckie Cheese or a place to jump on inflatables, but until then I’ll just keep having sweet little parties at home with our family and friends that love them and enjoy decorating for a theme that I love.