a dr seuss birthday

This past Saturday we celebrated Preston's upcoming 1st birthday with a Dr Suess/Cat in the Hat themed birthday party with family and friends.

I had so much fun planning his party and love taking time on all the little details that may go unnoticed but to me, make it extra special. I know he won't remember this birthday or any of the things that were made for it but I will and it's a true celebration of his first year of life and survival :)

Here's the pictures and details......

The entry and welcome area:

welcome table

entry way

the kids party favor

welcome table

The guests were asked, via a clever little poem, to sign his Dr Suess "Happy Birthday" book with a little message to him letting him know you were in attendance at her first birthday.
The Suessville sign is something I made by painting a wooden rod, hand drawing and cutting the arrow signs, and anchoring them in a red bucket with a foam arrangement square and some rocks.
And the "Welcome" sign is something I picked up at the Target dollar spot intended for a teacher's door.

Our mantle in the main living room area:

I picked up the aqua candles at Hobby Lobby to use in our room but they matched perfectly so I added them to the party decor.
The Dr Seuss sign is ones I printed on card stock on our home computer and then painted Dollar Store frames to make them more colorful.
The monthly pictures banner I made with scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby and pictures I printed off via Shutterfly.
The "Preston" letters are from Hobby Lobby and also used in his room.

The sweets table:

This table was located right next to the main food table and got plenty of attention throughout the night.
The Dr Seuss fabric is something I picked up in Denver, CO while visiting my sister and worked perfectly as an overlay to this table.
Hy-Vee did the cake and I made the sugar cookies.

The main food table:

I had all the paper laterns, which I picked up at Hobby Lobby long ago and use some of them in Preston's room.
The red backdrop is a Dollar Tree table cloth taped to the print we usually have hung in our dining room.
The Dr Seuess details are from a printable I bought on Esty for $4! and printed on my home computer. The package included the food labels, which I was able to personaliz, the "Welcome to My Party" sign, water bottle labels, and cupcake toppers that I used on the fruit kabob sticks. It came with other things too but that was what I used from the package. Good deal!

We served Ham and Green Egg salad sandwiches, Yot in a Pot meatballs, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish goldfish, Cat in the Hat fruit kabobs (alternating strawberries and bananas to look like the red and white hat), Assorted Green and Other Things veggie cup with ranch dip, and Oodles of Noodles mac n' cheese! Yummy yummy!

I had one planned kids craft which involved making a popsicle stick cat nose and a cat in the hat red and white hat. Here's a picture of Lily with her completed craft - the "older" kiddos loved it!

Come cake time he didn't dig in like I thought he would. He nicely shared with Daddy and picked at it some but never really dove in. Somehow he managed to get plenty messy though :)

By present time he was pretty much ready for bed so we just did a few. He got lots and lots of gifts - trucks, trains, cars, all things boy! and we needed a few non pink items around here :)

my grandma makes all the great grandkids a quilt for their 1st birthday - so cute! he loved the animals!

we got him this chair from pottery barn and gave it to him earlier in the day so he could use it at his party

It was such a wonderful evening spent with close friends and family that we feel blessed took the time to spend the evening with us celebrating our little man. What a year its been - he's the best!

pre party picture

bad lighting but little man snuggling in

i'd call it a success :)