Molina Baby Steps: Party Planning and Details

Being one to always go overboard, and get obsessed with planning and one who loves throwing parties, a ton of thought and time went into planning Sienna's first birthday party. I knew it HAD to be big. We wanted all our close friends and family there, and ended up inviting about 80 people (plus kids). This was such an important event for me, my BABY was ONE year old, it had to be a great celebration! I think there was about 60 people there... plus quite a few kids (hey we had over 300 people at our wedding).

Starting the planning, I needed a perfect theme. Since we live in the COUNTRY and Sienna has a cowgirl room, my first thoughts were western/cowgirl... But she really loves all animals, and is obsessed with horses and farm animals (favorite things include her barn activity center, Baby MacDonald DVD, and farm books). So the theme just had to be farm/barnyard. And how perfect since Russell's parents live on a ranch/farm!

So it started with the invitations. I didn't like any of the premade ones I saw, and wanted it to be more personal. So I decided to try and make my own with Word and Clipart and it was actually much easier than I though (still took a long time with formatting and making it all exactly how I wanted). And I love that I captured a picture of Sienna holding out her finger, saying "1"! But I loved the final product, and used Vistaprint.com to print them. They had free grayscale printing on the back side, so I added a picture of Sienna on her rocking horse. And this was reasonably priced as well (yes I ordered a ton), but I lagged a bit in making the final copy, and underestimated the processing time, so ended up spending way too much on rush processing and shipping (almost as much as the invites themselves!)

We knew the food would be easy- Molina party= BBQ. We didn't want to have a full meal, so we did finger foods including sausage, poppers, dips, chips, etc. (thank you Costco) I also had plastic "terricota" pots with peanuts in the shell on tables.

As far as the decorations went, I knew since it was outside, we wouldn't need too much. But of course, I still had plenty. And I wanted to stick with primary colors. We had a friend bring a bunch of hay bales which were perfect for extra seating. I got a roll of red and white checkered table cover from Smart and Final. I made farm animal cutouts on sticks for the tables and plastic pinwheels that we stuck in mini terricota pots filled with pinto beans. And I found various tin containers to hold utensils and craft supplies (most stuff from dollar store). The centerpieces were yellow and red sunflowers (trader joes) in mason jars with fabric ties.

I made a clothesline between two oak trees and had pictures of Sienna month by month hung with mini clothespins. I backed the pictures on fun bold printed paper. And also made a "Happy 1st Birthday Sienna" banner (michaels for those supplies).

I ordered a lot of stuff online (celebration express and oriental trading company) including the cow pinata, huge cow/pig balloons, cowprint balloons, red "1" balloons (got the balloons filled plus more colors at albertsons) and goodies for the kids (farm rubber duckies, chick shaped eggs filled with candy, and egg bouncy balls). I also got a stuffed "autograph" horse for everyone to sign as a keepsake for Sienna. For the kids, I bought white paper lunch bags for the goody bags/pinata candy bags. I had crayons and stickers for them to decorate them. And I also found really cute farm animal balloon kits.