The Taynors

The Taynors

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Birthday Details- Construction Truck Theme

I have been wanting to write this post for 3 weeks now, but I was waiting on pictures to post along with it.  My friend Jill is a great photographer and she came to the party to take pictures, your the best Jill!   Here is how I went about planning and preparing for Ryan's first birthday party.

Theme- I picked the theme because I wanted something very boyish but I didn't want to do something that he is going to ask for in a few years.  So I figured trucks are very boy but not a common request (especially not construction trucks).

Decorations-  The initial idea came from a birthday catalog.  So I went to birthday express and did some brainstorming.  I didn't just want to buy the whole birthday set, but it was a good place to start getting ideas.  From there we did the basic things like plates, balloons, constructions hats and cones.





Banners- I wanted to have the birthday banners that a lot of people are using at kids birthday parties (happy birthday, high chair banner, 0-12 month pictures).  The debate was whether I should make them myself or have them done.  I know I could have made them and they would have been fine... but I decided to contact a friend of mine from growing up and ask her to do them.  She does a great job, and these banners came out WAY better than if I did them myself.  I highly recommend Uniquely Me Design if you are looking to have decorative banners made for any occasion (you can also find her on Facebook)!  Thanks Tiffany!





The Things I Made:  Now that I had the basic decorations and my banners, I had some ideas of what I could do to personalize it.  I did a little bit of research online and I found a file that contained all different things to use for a construction themed party.  You can print it all out using card stock paper and make your own decorations.  So from that file I made construction signs, the tags for the favors, labels for the water bottles, and decorations to put in with the food.

Then I wanted to do something with some of my favorite pictures from Ryan's first year, so I made a photo collage in the shape of the number 1 to hang at the party.






Food-  I kept the food pretty simple.  I ordered sandwich platters and between my mom, mother in law, and sister in law, they handled the sides and salads.  The party was at noon so I just did a light lunch.  I had beer and wine (its not a party in my family without the booze haha).  Plus I wanted to make sure everyone had room for dessert.

Cake and Favors-  My sister in law was the one to get us our awesome cake!  She found a baker by her that does beautiful custom cakes, and Ryan's turned out great!






In addition to the cake, I made home made "Dirt" pudding for dessert and chocolate cake pops for favors.  This was my first experience with making cake pops, the first round went terrible.  But once I got the hang of it they weren't so bad.  I would make them again for another occasion.  The hardest part was wrapping and tagging them after the chocolate shell hardened. 






And lastly, Gymboree had a whole construction truck clothing line this spring, so I was able to get a cute shirt that went along with the theme!


Overall, I think it was a good day.  I was disappointed about the abrupt ending but there is nothing I can do about that. 




1 comment:

  1. Pretty things and decorations done by mommy the great. Cake is beautified with fondant colors. Best part for my son's birthday was the venue NYC booked by my husband. Everyone appreciated his choice of decorations and colors combinations. Snacks and drinks were all of his taste. Bought return gifts for kids too.

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