Hey friends, Courtney here!
I can hardly believe it, but my son Forrest is officially one year old! Time really does fly—it feels like just yesterday we were introducing him here on the blog. We celebrated with a sweet little birthday party at our house, surrounded by some of his favorite people. It was the perfect way to mark his first year, and I wanted to share a few photos and ideas from the celebration with you today!
We kept the party simple and laid-back (I’ve seen quite the elaborate first birthday parties online lately!), but I still had so much fun adding special touches. A Simple Gathering…if you will. 😉 The party was warm, cozy and homey. It felt to me like sweet, wholesome childhood magic and will be a wonderful memory to look back on.
I also got inspired to make a few simple crafts and bring some of my Pinterest pins to life, so I’ll be sharing those, along with the recipes I used for his smash cake and a delicious sugar cookie recipe, in this post!
I didn’t have a specific “theme” for the party; instead, I focused on adding little details that would make Forrest smile when he saw them. He’s always been one to notice the tiniest details, is delighted by animals, and has a silly sense of humor. So I incorporated whimsical touches throughout, keeping his favorite things in mind!
Here are twelve 1st birthday party ideas and details from our celebration:
1. A Special Party Hat
I had a feeling he wouldn’t be a fan of actually wearing this adorable birthday hat, but it was too cute to resist buying. Turns out he indeed absolutely hated it the second I put it on him, haha! But it was very cute nonetheless and will be a special memento.
2. Stuffed Animals in Party Hats
I had spotted this idea Pinterest and knew it was an absolute MUST for the party! I knew Forrest would think it was so silly to see his favorite animal friends in attendance at his party wearing their party hats. I made the hats myself with craft paper I had on hand.
There are lots of tutorials online, but I just cut the paper into a semi-circle with a little notch at the top, then formed it into a cone and taped it together. I added big pom-poms on top with hot glue and tied on some baker’s twine to secure them. I also puff-painted little white dots onto the solid paper hats just for fun!
Of course his little wood animals needed pom-pom party hats too! These mini hats brought me a lot of joy.
3. DIY Party Picks + Cupcake Embellishments:
To personalize the store-bought cupcakes and add some fun to the snack table, I created my own party picks using Canva! I designed a few sheets of watercolor animals with party hats, along with a sheet of his photos, also sporting party hats. After printing and cutting everything out, I hot-glued them to toothpicks for the cupcakes and party food, and to longer skewers for his smash cake.
For an extra touch of animal fun, I tucked a Trader Joe’s animal cracker into each cupcake.
This cupcake kit with animal party picks is adorable if you want to buy some pre made!
4. Month Milestone Banners
I printed out all of Forrest’s monthly photos (plus a few periodic ones I took of him in the same chair) to create a party banner. We punched small holes in the photos with a mini hole punch and strung them along baker’s twine. Seeing the progression all laid out like this was so sweet!
If you do this, I’d recommend printing on cardstock or having real photos printed (we just did regular printer paper for ease which wasn’t as hardy, but it did the trick!).
5. Photo + Video Slideshow on the TV
I knew I wanted to print some pictures of Forrest to display around the party, but with the thousands of photos I’ve taken over the past year, narrowing them down felt impossible! I printed some of my absolute favorites, but my husband had the great idea to create a slideshow with even more photos. Canva came to the rescue again—it has so many templates where you can easily upload photos and videos. We streamed it to the TV through my computer, and it played on a loop throughout the party. It was such a fun touch for guests to enjoy and see sweet moments from Forrest’s first year.
6. A Festive Smash Cake
I made this healthy smash cake recipe and used greek yogurt as the “Frosting”. I finished it off with this gold “one” candle, a few of my printouts on skewers, and a pom-pom on a skewer because it just felt fun. 🙂
Do you think he liked the cake? Ha! He thoroughly enjoyed it. I tried it too, it was quite yummy especially for being so healthy! It kept well as leftovers over the next day or so, too.
7. Who Knows the One Year Old Best
I made this sheet (once again, with Canva) with some trivia questions about Forrest. We didn’t make it an official game, more just a fun conversation starter, but you could totally make it a party game with prizes if you wanted to!
8. Sugar Cookie Party Favors
I stumbled upon this adorable bunny shaped cookie stamper and that was all it took to convince me I had to make bunny cookies for this party. We had some clear treat bags and ‘from Forrest’ stickers left over from when we hosted a baby shower for Forrest last year (I made bear shaped royal iced cookies as party favors!), so it was a good opportunity to use them and send guests home with a treat!
I used this sugar cookie recipe, and this royal icing recipe.
I will say–I did start to question my decision to make these cookies as I was icing them late into the night the evening before his party…maybe got a bit carried away there hahaha but it was still fun. 🙂
9. Whimsical Bunting
I brought this cute fabric bunting down from his room for a festive detail to hang behind his high chair. I also put up a little Forrest pennant a very sweet Instagram follower sent us before he was born!
I’ve shared a tour of Forrest’s room on the blog here.
10. A Delicious Spread of Snacks & Treats
Is any party complete without a table full of snacks? Shout out to Trader Joe’s for providing most of the deliciousness around the table. The Peanut Butter Caramel Coated Popcorn was a very yummy new-to-me discovery…would recommend!
11. Simple Bouquets
I picked up this simple bouquet from Trader Joe’s for our kitchen—I always enjoy their flowers. Extra festive with that cute birthday boy peeking out of it!
12. Instant Camera
I had our instant camera out at the party to take photos. While I love the convenience and quality of phone photos, there’s something truly special about the photos we capture with this camera. We used it for our wedding Polaroid guest book, our baby shower, and for special memories throughout Forrest’s first year. I’ll cherish these photos forever!
My grandma got us this precious baby memory book (above) that I’ve been loving filling out each month. These self-adhesive kraft paper photo corners have made it so easy to stick my Polaroids in.
My sister Kylee and her daughter Lila took the train up from Portland to be at the party, which was so special! They even wore matching striped suits (the cutest!!!). Forrest and Lila are only 5 months apart so it will be very sweet to celebrate their birthdays together each year.
Lila helped Forrest open a few of his favorite gifts including this adorable bike and this play tunnel.
It was a wonderful time celebrating our boy!
Follow me on Instagram here, I love to share bits of my life and home in stories!
Below are a few of the sources from the party or similar items if you’re hosting a party too:
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