If you’ve been under a rock, you didn’t know that my baby turned ONE last week and we celebrated with a bang over the weekend. It just so happened that one of my Hubby’s cousins was throwing her son a puppy party around the same time frame and needed some invitations, so I was able to combine some of the ideas I had for her with mine to create the perfect invitations for both {hers were different}. Red and White stripes were a theme throughout because of a good deal I got on some striped fabric to make a table runner, so I had to be sure to include that in the invitation to set the mood.
I will go ahead and say, this is most definitely a “pinterest-inspired” party {who’s isn’t these days}, but we were on a budget. I made everything myself and shopped all of the dollar stores, walmart, sams, you name it to get the best deals in town.
I had our fall decorations out already so I just went with it and grabbed a cheap paper mache number “1″ from hobby lobby and wedged it into my wreath on the front door. I made some signs to put around, one telling people to come on in and out to the back.
We had to make some adjustments to the set up thanks to the HOT sun. We moved the tables over into the shade to give some relief to people sitting and just went with it. It was a beautiful day, but I was hoping it would be a tad bit cooler, oh well! The balloon banner was very simple, I used this method and blew up all 48 balloons by myself the night before. Did I mention I’m pregnant? Yeah. That happened.
The “fetch sticks” were white candy melt-dipped pretzel sticks that I added some red icing to as well.
I had seen on pinterest that people had made a cake in a dog bowl and covered it with cocoa puffs to make it resemble dog food. Since I didn’t want to be cutting a cake {and that seems a little small for a cake}, I decided to do “pup cakes.” I got the name from Pinterest, but then I did the cocoa puff thing on each of them. I used foil cup cake liners so they would look like little dog bowls. They were made with simple yellow cake mix and chocolate icing. To add a little something extra to the effect, my sister spotted this cereal in her target and grabbed it for me since it was no where to be found in Abilene. It really made it that much cuter and added to the dog food effect. All I did was put icing on the cup cakes and dip them into a bowl of the two cereals mixed together.
I made some candied pop corn {pup corn} using this recipe in two batches, one red and one blue. I really didn’t think much of it, but seriously, I had so many questions about the pop corn. Everyone loved it – I think it would be a great addition to any gathering, and so easy to just grab the color of your party!
The puppy chow was a must. You know what puppy chow is, right? Well, I made it without peanut butter – we’ll cross that bridge another day.
The main food was burgers and hot dogs, and they went on this table. Those are monthly photos of little Hud + a one week shot. So crazy to see how much he’s grown in the last year!
All of our tables, table cloths and most of the chairs were borrowed, saving us tons of money and allowing us to realistically throw a big party for nearly nothing! I would say, if you know people with things, ask!
I made Hudson’s shirt using an old jersey knit shirt for the “1″, and some fabric paint to spell it out.
Instead of party favors, we did a “Puppy Adoption” for all of the kids at the party. I searched high and low for these stuffed animals and found them for super cheap at Tuesday Morning, of all places. The fencing came from KMart and was on sale for $1 a panel.
The birthday boy was pretty happy to party.
Hudson seemed to love it when everyone sang to him, he just watched everyone and swayed back and forth. The smash cake was made using two small glass pyrex dishes and iced with chocolate icing – nothing fancy, kept it simple.
He wasn’t the biggest fan of having icing on his hands…
…in fact, he didn’t like it at all.
After a few minutes, he was ready to be done with it.
But we took a photo anyways.
Baby boy, we love you so much and can’t wait to see who you become.
I’ll leave you with the chalkboard, thank you to everyone who came and helped out, it was a blast. We are so thankful for each and every person in our little Mann’s life, to see other pictures that were taken with cell phones, go to instagram and follow the hashtag #HudsonLturnsone. Now to find out what the next baby’s gender is in ONE WEEK!!