My mom threw the BEST parties when I was a kid! I’m not kidding. Our Halloween parties were the talk of the town! I haden’t entertained in like 2 years because of the little one. Who has parties when they can’t drink? I’m sure plenty of people do, but I’m not one of them. I had never had a kids party before and honestly, I haven’t really been to many either. I know this is a special one – the little one’s FIRST Birthday! Totally special, and as far as I can tell the only Birthday party where I’ll have a say on the theme. Come Year 2 he’ll surely have a favorite show or thing. I settled on a nautical theme early because I LOVE it, and I found some amazing bumper pillows and a nautical duvet cover on clearance at IKEA (which I used as a table cloth). The in the kitchen area I found all of these… Bouy lights, rope napkins, cups, serving bowls, latitude and longitude plates. So cute! Check out the bottom of this post for links to a few of the things I found on Amazon that are reasonably priced and fit my theme. I had intentions of ordering them but never did :). If you happen to buy them through the links below I will receive a small commission. If you haven’t read about affilliate links you can read it here.
That was just the beginning! Every night I dreamed of more and more ways to incorporate the theme into the party. I couldn’t believe how consuming the planning was – Seriously, I was a mad woman, dreaming and working, morning and night! My house was a slurry of paper scraps, glue and gf flour. I made banners, and decorations, and cakes (check out my Allergen Free, Low Sugar Spice Cake and Buttercream Icing). Stay tuned for my posts on DIY Maritime flag banners, Boat Line Frames, first year milestones board, Maritime Flag Cake Topper, Nautical Kids Activities, and sail boat snack bowls. Holy crap – I’m tired 🙂 Here’s the cake and decor I made for our cake smash photo shoot. You can either wait for my DIY, or if you’d rather buy the banner or cake topper you can get one from my Etsy store here. If you don’t feel like making the Boat Line Frames I think these Welcome Aboard Cloth Life Ring Navy Accent Nautical decorations from would be super cute as frames. I also planned on moving our changing table down to the main floor to make it easier for parents to have a place to change their little ones. I didn’t because I didn’t have too many babies that could make it but if I did I would have purchased this Brass Poop Deck Sign
As crazy as I was, I was also lucky. I had so many people who wanted to help! They brought potato salad, my dairy free creamy cole slaw, a greek salad and sloppy joes so all we had to worry about were the snacks and dessert. Anyways, the party turned out wonderfully! Everything looked great and everyone had a great time – especially the little one! To be quite honest, I think he was more excited about having free reign of the house than he was about the fact that he was having a party. We finally redid our deck so he could go out on it and he spent most of the day crossing over the threshold between the deck and kitchen :). I’ll be posting all of my DIYs later. For now, here’s a cute pic my little one’s Nautical Photo Shoot – a little sandy foot! If you’re having a nautical party and have a photographer you should really think about getting a few pics taken. We’re lucky, we live by a lake and had the perfect spot to go but you could throw your little ones in a life jacket and voila! 🙂
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