Are you ready for party picture overload? Cause it’s about to happen.
For Lincoln’s 1st birthday, I decided on a slightly unconventional theme. I’m not sure where I got it, I think I saw something on Pinterest a while back that sparked the idea and then I just ran with it.
I decided to do an office theme; tying everything into your favorite things about working in an office – you know, clipboards, ties, coffee breaks… (what’s that? I am the only one who think clipboards are awesome? Oh.) Since it was a morning party, we offered our guests coffee, donuts, muffins, and pastries; all the goodies you would get at your regular morning staff meeting. The table was covered in butcher paper purchased at the Dollar Tree, and the runner was cut from a disposable tablecloth from the party section at Target ($3.99). The awesome giant balloon is from the Oh, Hello Friend shop.
Games were a little harder to come up with. I had a genius plan to do a “find the paper clip in the shredded paper” game, but then I realized what a mess that would make and decided against it. Instead, I settled on “Pin the tie on Lincoln” and “Guess how many rubberbands are in the jar?”
For “Pin the tie on Lincoln,” I took a photo of him sans tie and ordered a poster print from Costco (only about $5). Then I cut out ties from scrapbook paper, blindfolded the kids with a tie, and let them at it. It was perhaps my favorite part of the party; the kids had a blast.
The rubberband game was fun, because it’s actually really hard to guess how many there are when they are all squished together in a jar. We allowed both the kids and the adults to place separate bets so there would be winners from each. Good thing, because most kids wrote single digit numbers – and some (like my daughter) guessed “1.” I believe the kid’s winner wrote “10” (and there 116). For prizes, I put together clipboards with office supplies (pads of paper, pens, giant paperclips, sticky notes) purchased at Target (the $1 section had some great stuff). I put the game on an old typewriter table that I had and revamped a while back.
Instead of sending the kids home with a favor, I set up a craft station where they could make their own desk nameplate. It was a very simple craft and I had completed most of it for them, so they just had to choose their papers and mod podge them onto the nameplate. After about 30 minutes it was dry and they could put it in a lunchsack with a piece of chalk to take home. I used the leftover nameplates from the party for end-of-the-year teacher gifts – huzzah! Full instructions on how to make it can be found { here }
In keeping with the office theme, I asked the guests to write a note to Lincoln on a post-it and stick it on the window we have hanging in our entryway. I still haven’t taken it down because I love the sweet words written to him and I am trying to figure out the best way to document it.
The birthday boy decided to go “business casual” and wore an untucked shirt. What a rebel.
His giant chocolate muffin (which is just as good as cake, right?) was topped with a sparkler candle from the Oh, Hello Friend shop. I didn’t think about it at the time when I bought it, but it was perfect that it was self-extinguishing because 1 year olds can’t blow out candles anyway.
All in all, it was such a great party (in fact, I think it was my favorite thus far – better than the milk & cookies party, vintage circus party and Curious George party). I know Lincoln had a great time (although he kind of had no clue what was happening), and that makes mommy happy.
