Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Lorenzo is One!

Well, the day is finally here. My sweet Lorenzo has turned one. We had what I call a small family get together of 35ish at our house. (We are a Hispanic family, 35 is small.) It was just with people who I consider closest to Lorenzo. His party theme was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. What better theme to choose than the song that we sang to him over and over the first year of his life?  This was not an easy theme that I could just go to a big box store for and pick up all the items that goes with it. There was a lot of detailed planning on my part that I hope would make the party memorable.

Here is a peek into the party.

Over this last year I took monthly pictures of Lorenzo on our rocking chair to show his growth over time. A simple task, that is worth showing off in the end. It was never my intention to overload my Facebook friends and family with these monthly pictures, but rather have them as memories for us and use it at his first birthday party in some way. So I had them printed off (4x5 size) and then made my own paper frame with the coordinating party colors. Then I hung them on some twine with mini clothes pins with stars to tie in the them. What I wasn't prepared for was our mom's reaction. Seeing their faces was the best part. They had no idea I had been doing this all along.

Birthday Banner


We also cleared off a small bookshelf and placed it in the entryway with some of my favorite and most memorable pictures over the year. I had this poster made which included all his favorite things and first word. We also used this as a photo prop. I thought it was wonderfully made and was a nice addition to the party. SimplyDovie created this for us. You can find her page here. The only thing I did was printed and framed it. I thought it was a sweet keepsake too.



 I made a high chair banner for him since I knew we would be giving him a small smash cake the day of the party. Plus it made a cute photo prop. This too was made with coordinating party colors.

1st Birthday High Chair Banner


I found an idea somewhere to do a Time Capsule. We had everyone who attended the party write a letter to Lorenzo that will be given to him on his 21st birthday. I chose 21 because I simply wanted him to be old enough to care. At 16 we all know that our minds are on high school, driving and whatever the next day holds for us. At 18 he might be preoccupied with graduation and college coming up. At 21 I felt that he would be mature enough to appreciate what words of wisdom this box would hold.

1st Birthday Time Capsule Idea


In the capsule I included the following:
-National newspapers the day of his birthday
-Top movies
-Top songs
-What the stock market closed at
-What a stamp costs
-What homes in our area cost
-The latest iPhone
-What are some world records of our time, etc.
-The letters his guests wrote to him
-A few birthday cards he received
-Pictures of who was there
-Some mementos from the party, like the high chair banner, party hat and his birthday candle.

For the display table I wrote out Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Yes, I wrote that myself. To my Lettering enthusiasts out there it might not look that impressive. But it was rather difficult for me. (That's a topic for later) I also made my own tassel garland so that it could coordinate with the party colors. The the star garland which I hung from the ceiling was made by yours truly. I followed a tutorial on Pinterest for the tassel garland. It was very simple to do, but fair warning if you are going to attempt this, it is time consuming. I also hung gold star garland that I made from the ceiling.

1st Birthday Theme


Last, but not least our Thank You notes. We had SimplyDovie create our thank you notes too. We handed these Thank You's out along with party favors as our guest left. Since most of the guests were adults we gave monogrammed candle holders and coasters. Our few younger guests got something a little more age appropriate.

1st Birthday Thank You Note Idea







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