Oh, the Places You’ll Go! First Birthday Party

I can’t believe my son is already a year old. It is absolutely insane how fast time flies. But, also if I’m being honest how insanely slow it can feel too. The years are short but the days are long (I have no idea where I heard that but it is so accurate). I have been all about sentiment lately. I want to make sure my son has lots of letters, pictures, and memories to look back on when he is an adult. So when I started to think about what I wanted to plan for his birthday party I came across the Dr. Seuss Oh the Places You’ll Go book and loved it for a first birthday party theme. I’ll be honest I love a good Pinterest level party. But, I will also be honest my follow through with the 1,000s of pins I have isn’t so great. I wanted a beautiful party for my son that also wouldn’t take a bazillion years to plan and prepare while also not breaking the bank.

Step One – Invitations

My son is the first grandchild on both sides of my family so there are a lot of people that want to help us celebrate our little guy’s birthday. So that meant ordering lots of invitations. My husband is Greek so he has a huge awesome family that loves to show up for everything and my family is all about family gatherings so needless to say we knew we couldn’t have everyone at one party. We decided to have two separate parties so everyone could come celebrate with us. So that meant ordering two separate sets of invitations which can get pricey. So, I found an Etsy shop called Sarah Finn Design that sold the invitation I was looking for as a PDF/JPG download and had I them printer at a local printer. I love her work you should totally check her out! This saved me a lot of money doing it this way and not ordering pre-printed invitations which are always so expensive!

Step Two – Decorations

I love the colors of the Oh the Places You’ll Go! book so I wanted to use that as a starting point for the decorations. Dr. Seuss books are always so whimsical with so many colors, shapes and rhyming words that’s what I wanted to channel into this party. The first year of any child’s life sort of just flies bye. In the blink of an eye – In a flash – In about 2.19 seconds. So, I didn’t really start planning my son’s party until the end of January and his birthday is February 24^th. Needless to say, I needed to find ideas quickly that didn’t take a ton of time to prepare or a lot of money to purchase. I came across these awesome decoration sets at Michaels on clearance because they were discontinued and I love them! Unfortunately, since they are discontinued I can’t find anywhere that sells them but, you can find tons of them that are really similar on Amazon.

I hung these from the ceiling using fishing line and masking tape. So they appeared to be floating. I bought all different shapes in all the colors from Oh! the Places You’ll Go. I found an adorable oh, the places you’ll go canvas on clearance at Home Goods and it was the perfect decoration for the entryway. I also bought streamers in all of the colors from Oh, the Places You’ll Go! And decorated the railing to the stairs with them.

Step Three – DIY Photo Booth

I wanted to add something extra special for my son’s party (yes I can be a little extra sometimes) so I decided to make a DIY photo booth for the guests to take pictures in front of. The idea was to make it look like you were riding in a hot air balloon. It turned out so cute and it was a huge hit at the party!  Here are all the pieces you’ll need to recreate it yourself. (I bought my basket from TJMaxx but the one below is the same shape and I cut the back of it off but definitely look for a cheaper one lol I got the balloon with tassel strings at Target but they also no longer sell these so below I added some stuff I found on Amazon that you can make it yourself.)

Step Four – Food

I wanted to bring all of the whimsy of Dr. Seuss into every aspect of the party so I bought straws in all of the colors from Oh, the Places You’ll Go! and I made food inspired by Dr. Seuss books.  I made name tags for each of the food items with a play on the book that inspired the dish. (Sign-up below for a free copy of my Dr. Seuss food tags that you can print yourself).

Here is a list of food we served

“Hop on Popcorn” Butter, Carmel and Cheddar flavored popcorn (inspired by Hop on Pop)

“Truffula Treats” Chocolate covered Oreos and pretzels, cupcakes and rice Krispy treats (Inspired by The Lorax)

“Go Dog Go” Pigs in a blanket (Inspired by Go Dog Go)

“One Fish Two Fish” goldfish crackers (Inspired by One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish)

“Green Eggs and Ham Sliders” ham & Swiss sliders (Inspired by Green Eggs and Ham)

“Poodles Eating Noodles” Mac & Cheese (Inspired by Fox in Socks)

“Hop on Pop” Soda (Inspired by Hop on Pop)

Step Five – Smash Cake

My son doesn’t get processed sugar at all so I wanted to find a cake that was adorable but also wasn’t packed with sugar that would likely make my son throw up. Plus, my son really hates anything super sugary (I really want to keep it that way) so I wanted to give him something that he would enjoy and something that was a healthier option for a smash cake. I found a local bakery that could make the exact cake I wanted. It was a banana cake with vanilla frosting. Everything was made with the least amount of sugar as possible and my son loved it! Plus, it was adorable! My only issue was it was much larger than I anticipated but that’s ok.

In addition to the cake I wanted his whole high chair smash cake station to be decorated. I bought a fabric garland decoration for around the tray of his high chair and I made a balloon decoration to hang behind it. See below for what you need to buy to recreate this setup. (I bought my supplies at stores like HomeGoods so the list below may not be the exact brand/style I used but it is very similar)

Step Six – Traditions and Sentiment

Despite popular opinion, I don’t think kids need a thousand toys for their birthdays. Especially not their first birthday. But, I also understand people love to give kids gifts. It is fun for the adult and fun for the kids. I totally get that but what I really wanted for my son’s first birthday was a more sentimental gift. I wanted each person to write a letter to my son that he will open on his 18^th birthday.  So, I wrote a fun little Dr. Seuss inspired poem (see below) on the back of his invitations asking for a letter from each of them. I think this is going to be his favorite gift when he turns 18. He will have letters from people that may not be around anymore. He will get a chance to hear firsthand stories, memories, advice, thoughts, hopes, and dreams from all of his loved ones. I am so happy I did this and I can’t wait for him to get to read all of these priceless letters.

I also bought a copy of Oh, the Places You’ll Go! and I wrote him my letter to him on the first two pages of the book. I will write him a new letter every year on his birthday and give him the book when he turns 18.

The Final Product

I loved this party! I think it was adorable, not that expensive since most of it was DIY and it wasn’t too over the top. Well, at least in my opinion it wasn’t… I mean I didn’t hire any live-action actors to join us so there’s that…