The Party

So this year for Benjamin's First Birthday we had just a small gathering of family and a few church friends. It was great! I went with simple. Asked friends to bring food to share instead of a gift. Planned just one game. Had simple decorations. We had a great time.

The theme was polka-dots in honor of Benjamin's love for balls and rolling wheels. I was able to use bright colors and lots of round objects.

I found bright colored bags to fill with family fun stuff. Check out the long straws, crazy fun!! I filled them with popcorn, bubbles, candy, stickers and a family game. Grammy and Papa got a dinosaur watering can, Grandma and Grandpa got a funny light up worm to replace the one that died at their house. "Grandma" Nixon got a whoopie cushion. : )

We were planning on 30 people, so we had to get a little creative with the seating inside since it was over 100 outside. This was the adult seating. The centerpieces are polka-dots with some pictures of Benjamin on them. We had kid seating behind this with a small table for the kids and then our kitchen table reserved for high chair seating.

A fun homemade birthday banner! I see these all the time on a blog I follow and love them. I made the triangles out of card stock, circles spelling out Happy 1st Birthday (and hanging in the other room) Benjamin.

This was my favorite part. A polka dot window with pictures of Benjamin's first year. The food table was under it and the window sill was lined with brightly colored cupcakes (thanks to Molly and Audra).

The simplicity of this party made it one of my favorites to decorate for. i think I'll have to keep that in mind!