Birthday Set Up!

I can't believe that tomorrow is John's FIRST birthday!! Just one year ago he was just a teeny tiny baby and now he is my big boy. I am so excited to celebrate the big day tomorrow!

I have been working for a while on John's birthday. This is mostly due to the fact that I had a student teacher for the past 11 weeks and had time to kill! I am very glad I spent my time wisely (lots of lesson plans done and lots of party decorations done!) so now I am not stressed out and am almost ready for tomorrow.

I have shown a couple sneak peaks, so here are some more full detailed decorations for John's airplane themed party.

**John's Party Invitation**
I got the idea from a similar one I saw online. I spent about an hour or so creating it on the computer and just printed it out and mailed it. Very cheap! I got lots of compliments on it and it really helped to set the theme for the party.



**Month by Month**
I had thought of making a long banner with pictures of all of John's 'firsts'. Yes I was going to totally copy Kinsey's idea! :) But I figured that would take forever considering I took pictures of EVERY first. I mean, do people really want to see a picture of the first time John had juice? So I modified and made a decorated page of a favorite picture from each month. Then I 'helped' Brad hang them up in a grid on the wall in the kitchen. It actually turned out pretty nicely! I used the tons of scrapbook stuff I already had as well as a gift card that I had to Michael's. So this turned out to be about a $40 project, but I had TONS of stickers left over from what I bought at Michael's so I could have done this for much cheaper. {Notice in the pictures that my table of food isn't set up yet, so ignore that!}





**Mantel Decor**
I joked with Brad that my biggest problem was I didn't know where to put all the decorations that I was making! So a banner and paper airplane 'burst' adorn the mantel, along with a book and toys that my mom got John. Brad so kindly let me use one of his model airplanes as well. The airplane 'burst' was the most frustrating thing to make! I found the idea online but mine kept looking like crap. I finally made different sized planes and that seemed to make it look nicer. I am still not in love with it, but I think it is a cool little twist to the decorations!






**Party Favors**
I really wanted to make cute little favor bags that looked like suitcases. But I am not that artsy so I just made a luggage tag for each guest and attached that to the paper bag. Each kid will get a pilot rubber ducky, a personalized sippy cup, and a little baggie of puffs and raisens. I set them up in our suitcase, even though I would have loved to have used an old bright blue hard-sided suitcase! I am too cheap to buy one from the thrift store though. :)





I also made little employee ID badges for each kid. It was super easy to make and it has John's birthdate for all the employee numbers. Thanks to my dad, Brad and I have been proud owners of a wing tip, but up until now I have banned that ugly thing to the backyard. However, it was perfect for our party! So, I put it on the dining room table so people could see it as soon as they walked in the door. I attached ribbon to it and hung the badges across it for the kids to get when they arrive and can wear them. Probably a little cheesy, but still cute. I figure that we can also put the presents on this table so they are out of the way!






So, these are some of the things I have been working on for the past couple weeks (or months!). Once I set up the rest tomorrow and have 'action' shots, I will post those too. Hopefully the babies have a blast tomorrow!