Yesterday we celebrated our littlest’s first birthday! It always amazes me how slow and yet how fast time can fly! I chose to do “Guess How Much I Love You” for this birthday since it’s the only one I can probably pull off with a boy and bunnies especially around Easter haha! But it made such a cute theme for even a baby shower that I’m kinda dying to do it again (know anyone 😉 )!
I’ve heard it said that the first child you tend to go all out but the following children not so much. It’s kinda been the opposite for me with my children but mostly because I was creative back with my first, but I didn’t have quite as many skills as I do with the second. Plus, I didn’t feel fully ready to be a mom the first time. So, while I regret not doing some things early on, I have certainly balanced it out with both boys now in various activities and events. However, for the first birthday I did want to put more into it and the event planner in me gets so stirred up!! So whether you are here to see pictures from the party (minus several pictures with our guests) or to get ideas for your own bunny themed party, I hope you enjoy! It was one of my favorite themes yet!
I purposed to make most everything for the party and I had so much fun starting several months back and making a few things each week. From the watercolor invitation, to the pom pom bunny tail garlands I made with my mom, the mushrooms for the tables, framing book pages, painting the cardboard cutouts, making the boys’ outfits and bib, bunny ear napkins, flower arrangements, carrot bean bags, hand painting favor bags, craft station, staining crates, painting and cutting fencing and even making a hand painted bunny for the cake that my mom and I created together.
I discovered in the process of planning the theme that very few party supplies for this book are available in the USA so I found super cute cups and balloons from the United Kingdom instead.
Most of the other party decor I just found from our home decor in the nursery, playroom and elsewhere. The wreath behind the food table was Patrick’s hospital door wreath, his name sign from Wild Wood Worx is in his nursery, shadow box, Chavamade milestone, and other odds and ends including pictures from birth to 11 months on a large frame.
Annie’s organics make the cutest bunny cheddar and honey graham crackers that were a perfect addition to the snack table (no, I did not cut those out)! You can find them at most grocery stores. I also got the fruit bunny individual packs to include in the favor bags along with some bunny ears and I found a library that was getting rid of a lot of their “Guess How Much I Love You” books for $1 each that I also put in their bags! I was so excited to find those! If you are looking for any, I recommend searching ebay first!
For the activities I had the carrot bean bag toss, a craft station and ball pit. Now originally we had Patrick’s birthday gift as a smaller ball pit from Milky Bubble Kids but after having a few kids playing while we decorated and realizing that it was going to be a lot of fun and sooooo not enough for more kids…I changed gears! I got an inflatable pool and then some balls. However, we made two mistakes that first attempt. We had a large 120″ pool and 400 balls. It looked like a tiny puddle in the middle of the pool and didn’t cover the bottom at all. So second attempt, I got a small inflatable pool that was 90″ and added 1200 more balls to it for a total of 1600 balls. I couldn’t find anywhere to rent them from so now I have a ton of balls and if anyone local can’t find any…look me up! It was the perfect amount and turned out to be a MUCH bigger hit with the kids than I ever imagined! So much so that I really didn’t need any other activities!!
But I did have more! We had a little egg hunt across the church courtyard under a pretty grove of trees. I wanted it to be simple and not many since Easter hunts would be coming up soon so I found white eggs and filled them with non-edible treats including little dinosaur and duck crayons, stickers, sticky hands, little squishy spike balls, and a balloon smash stuffer I found all at Wal-Mart. I also tied a balloon to bubbles for each child (originally wanting to put bubbles inside the egg but couldn’t find small sizes on a short notice since I thought I had some already). Each child also had an egg they could pop open from the tree. I tied one end of an egg to the tree and then another string to the bottom and let that hang down. So all they had to do was pull the bottom string to open their egg (just use a thick enough string that fits through the egg hole and strong enough to pull, be sure to secure each end inside the egg with a good thick knot). It was simple and sweet and short but the kids loved it! The kids picked their favor bags to help the m collect their eggs.
My original plan was to read the story and then have the kids act out parts of the story to get to the egg hunt but the ball pit was such a huge hit they wouldn’t have stayed still for the story! So hopefully they got to enjoy the story that night instead from their favor bags!
The food was simple since it was a snack time of day so we had each different fruit in berry cartons and celery and carrots in little clay pots. I put little bowls into some cabbages to hold fruit dip and ranch.
For the flowers I grabbed some wildflowers, ferns from our yard, and a couple wildflower style bouquets. I wanted the carrots with stems attached but couldn’t find any at all the grocery stores I tried so instead I used just regular carrots and some parsley since the leaves looked kind of similar. It looked great for a simple trick!
We also had our bunny join us and we found a little cubby in the fireplace area for him although I would have loved to put him in a cuter area, he is a very old bunny and we wanted him to stay super protected. I intended to put flowers all around his area but for some reason my mom brain kicked in and I forgot to add them that morning.
So if you plan a “Guess How Much I Love You”, “Peter Rabbit” or other bunny theme, I hope some of these ideas can inspire you as well!
Many thanks to Elberton’s First Methodist Church for letting us use their Bozeman building facilities and for being so accommodating! It was absolutely perfect! I originally planned on a pastel theme but after seeing the reddish color walls and yellow molding I changed my color scheme and I couldn’t be happier! It was such a beautiful space to use and I hope to use it again for future parties!
