Ethan's 1st Birthday

As a child some of my favorite memories are of parties my parents threw at the house. Whether they were birthday parties, family picnics or holiday gatherings I loved them all. It was always such a whirlwind of activity, the hustle and bustle of cleaning and preparing for the guests to arrive, the warm cozy scents of food and my mom's candles wafting through the air, the lights of the decorations glowing and the anticipation on putting on my party dress. Such fantastic memories

Now as an adult, I realize that there is so much more that goes into planning a party. They take a lot of time, money and effort to plan! WHen Gianna turned 1 we went all out for her party. And while it was memorable and fun, it wasn't too relaxing. The husband spent the whole day grilling, we rented a bounce house no one used and near the end Gianna started to get overwhelmed. So for her 2nd bday we toned it down a bit and for Ethan's we went even more lowkey.

I knew I wanted the sock monkey theme from the time he was born. I had started collecting sock monkeys after he arrived and thought they were the cutest thing.I debated about changing it to a pumpkin theme but in the end I combined the two. Here are all the party details

The decorations-I purchased a printable sock monkey kit of etsy. I printed and strung together all the banners and just hung them up in a few places around the house. My goal was to have everyone outside so I didn't want to go overboard on the decor

Our sock monkey and pumpkin matle

Ethan's monthly pics. I just bought ribbon and clothes pins and hung it up adding some of the sock monkey printables form the kit I purchased

I loved all the patterns the kit included and hung this one over the door that led to the backyard so everyone could at least see it before they walked outside

The kitchen all decorated for the big day

I made the canvas from Ethan's smash cake session myself. Cost me 15 bucks. DIY post to come later on

Some more sock monkey decor

Seat of honor

Streamers were such a cute and cheap way to decorate

The outfit
I purchased this sock monkey onesie from Etsty as well. Isn't it cute!

Activities

I originally planned on having a make your own sock monkey station and a sock monkey photo booth complete with props. I even bought all the materials to make it all and spent plenty of nights cutting the stuff all out to make it and then I changed my mind a week before the party. Ethan is after all only 1. He is not going to remember this and while a craft would have been fun, it would also have been more stressful. We all know trying to get a one year old to sit still and not eat, lick or ruin the project is impossible. Plus I wanted all my guests and their kids to have fun and to be able to relax. Not run around doing craft projects with a bunch of one year olds. So I decided on a pumpkin patch. I went to my church, bought dollar pumpkins for all the kids that would be there and set up a pumpkin patch in the backyard. Here is Ethan's pumpkin patch

The kids had a blast picking out their own pumpkin

I put out crayons and markers and the kids went to work on decorating their pumpkins

I found this pumpkin toss game at target and the older kids had a ball playing it

Eats
I debated about doing chili and potatoes but figured that would be too messy. Then I debated a sub platter from publix. Then I went the cheap and easy route and got 5 dollar pizza's from Little Cesears. I put out salad, chips and dip and hormel chili dip for appetizers and called it a day. I had juice boxes for the kids, and soda and some alcoholic beverages for the adults. I ordered another smash cake for Ethan  from this amazing bakery in town and I made the sock monkey cupcakes myself

The cupcake idea I found on pinterest. While I made and frosted them, my good friend did all the actual decorating. Super cute right!

And that's it for all the party details. I think this one was my best party yet. Fun and simple. Perfect for a one year old. Tomorrow I'll share with you some more party pictures