Winter ONEderland

Well, E's first birthday has come and gone. We now have a little toddler taking steps around our house. His birthday party was a fabulous Winter ONEderland. I tried to DIY as much as possible. I think it turned out pretty great. And E had a blast with his family and friends, so no matter how it looked, I know I did a good job because he had fun! Just a warning, this is going to be a pretty long post, so bear with me.





First, we'll start with his invites. I bought wintery paper and silver envelopes. I hand-painted snowflakes on the envelopes and "Elijah is turning ONE!" I also added some 3D snowflake stickers that I found at Target.

I wrote a little song for his invitation to the tune of "Winter Wonderland." It said ...
"In December there will be a birthday
For a very special little boy
We'll enjoy hot chocolate with Elijah
Who brings us all a great amount of joy

Later on, we'll eat cupcakes
He'll get icing on his face
We'll face unafraid the mess that he'll make
Join us in a Winter ONEderland"






Outside the entrance to the party space, I put some homemade ice marbles.


To make these, you simply fill balloons with water (and food coloring for the colored ones) and freeze. Then you cut off the balloon and place your ice marbles on display! In order for them to be good and solid, make sure to keep them in your freezer for two or more full days.

On the doors to the building, I hung a homemade snowflake wreath 

(which I touched on in THIS blog post) and a sign I made and printed at home. 

We decorated the 

doors to the party space with 

balloons and twisted streamers. 

The gift table was 

decorated with balloons 

and the wall behind it was 

decorated with twisted streamers. 

On the gift table, I also had a picture frame for all of the guests to sign. I will be putting a picture from the party in it soon (hopefully).










Behind the food table I hung a photo banner.

 To make the photo banner, I first painted 12 clothespins white. Then I hung the photos (one of E as a newborn and one from each month 1-11) on white yarn. Then we hung the banner on the wall. 

Each month I took a photo shoot with a sign I made. I changed out the number each month to reflect how old he was. Each photo in this banner has a picture with his sign, other than his newborn photo. 

To make the sign, I used scrapbooking letters on card stock and I cut out the numbers for each month from white card stock. 

Also on the food table was a snowflake and a cardboard 1 that I made.


To make the cardboard 1's (which we also used as centerpieces for the guest tables), cut out 1 shapes from cardboard, cut out a small, thin rectangle piece for each 1 you are making. Then cut a slit in the 1 and slide the small rectangle piece into the slit. The small piece serves to balance the cardboard 1. I chose to paint all of the 1's white to go with the Winter theme, but you could paint them whatever color you choose or cover them in pretty paper to go with your party theme. If you are going to paint - use spray paint. It will save you SO much time. I used acrylic and had to do 3 or 4 coats to cover the writing on the cardboard!







We had hot chocolate and marshmallows, bottled water, and cupcakes.











The cupcakes were made and decorated by my fabulous chef husband (thanks, Kendall).

I did make the white chocolate snowflakes myself, though.

To make these, I melted white chocolate and put it in a squirt bottle (you can get one at Walmart for less than $1). I "drew" them onto parchment paper and then put a sprinkle in the middle. Once they dried, they came right off the paper. Of course, they are fragile! I made these a day ahead of time and stored them (with wax paper between layers to prevent any potential sticking) in the freezer.

 Behind E's high chair, I hung the popsicle stick snowflakes that I made months ago and talked about in THIS blog post.


We decorated the base of his high chair with a drop cloth (in case smashed cupcake made its way to the floor) and taped some balloons to the drop cloth.








On E's high chair I put a name banner. I cut the blue paper into the same sized rectangles. I printed the letters and snowflakes (which are on each side of his name, but you can't see them) from Microsoft Word. I cut them out and glued them to the blue rectangles. I punched a hole in the top corners of each rectangle and threaded a piece a white yarn through the holes. The banner was then taped to the high chair.







And of course I have to include a cake smash photo of my cute little one year old. He really enjoyed that cupcake! To the point where he was licking it off his sleeves and everything!

Here is a picture of E wearing the tie shirt that I made and talked about in THIS blog post. He looked adorable in it, even once it was covered with hot chocolate and cupcake.













And finally, I'll include some pictures of the stuffed monster I made for him.

This monster was made using the same method as the other stuffed monster I made for him and talked about in THIS blog post.









And I made sure to put a 1 on the back so we always remember when I gave him this monster.







I would like to give a shout out to all those who helped decorate and celebrate with us! We had a wonderful time and we are so blessed to have all of you in our lives! Thank you!  -Kristen