Bear-themed B-day!

I love parities. I love planning. 
So, you can just imagine my joy with planning our son's first birthday party.

Whenever I plan a party I like to come up with some sort of theme, which I try to start thinking about as early as possible so that I give myself enough time to shop (as Bart says, I'm always shopping for something!) I somehow decided on the theme of teddy-bears for Benjamin. Boys and bears, cute. I'm also in love with the adorable little baby GAP emblem of a hand-stitched bear, so maybe that's how it got into my head....anyway, once I got my theme, I thought about all of the things that would be fitting for a child's birthday party like party hats, plates, napkins, and candy. I didn't want to go too overboard with bears, but have them repeated enough to be consistent. So, I started with including a stamp of bears and a bear sticker on the backs of his mom-made invitations: 

FRONT

BACK

BACK OF ENVELOPE

I then started to brainstorm food that would tie in well, and came up with Teddy Grahams and Gummy Bears. While at Hobby Lobby I came across these teddy bear cupcake liners, and wahoo- I was all set with our desserts! I also did mini-yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting and teddy grahams on top. I then placed the remaining bear candies in serving bowls for guests to munch on. I would ideally like to make our children cake's every year (who knows, maybe when they get older they won't want me to!) so since I was taking on cupcake baking & decorating, I decided to outsource the food. We ordered a catering tray of mini-subs from Jimmy Johns and had some of our guests bring sides like chips and drinks. 

For overall decor, I wanted it to be simple and re-usable, so when I found a set of felt party hats (see first pic) and a pennant b-day banner (ala Hobby Lobby), I knew that was it! I also tied in the pennants to the front of the invitations, and as the background theme to his Smilebox b-day greeting. 

To ease my mind with the set-up, I drew up a picture of the spread before hand so I wouldn't feel rushed. As you can see, it came out almost identical to my plan!

Last minute things I thought up a few days before were getting his presents wrapped ahead of time to serve as a back-drop for the table display, and buying little cupcake to-go boxes for our guests (thanks for making these Paula Deen!). I found them at Michaels and loved the cute packaging and funny stickers "Let's Eat Y'all" that they came with. Even though I LOVE cupcakes, I didn't need to be left with all of the leftovers!

 And last but not least, a B-day banner for our front door. I love announcing the party again to guests to make them feel welcome and in "the party mode" before they even come inside. 

and the party was....BEARY fun, a huge success. Hope you enjoyed taking a glimpse into my party planning head and home!