But He Was Still Hungry....

Now that my baby is 3 months away from TWO, I guess it's about time I get around to posting his 1st birthday party details! We went with a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme! In case you missed it, I mentioned the beginning of my planning in this post here.

There is no way I could have pulled this off without planning ahead! Yay for organization!

I designed the invitations myself and had them printed on cardstock at Kinkos. I set them up several on a page and trimmed them out to get the most for my money. 

Of course, I had to serve the five main fruits from the book. We got the leaf place mats as a wedding gift and I taped black circles on them to look like the caterpillar ate through them.

 

I also went nuts making tissue paper confetti. I had a circle whole punch from a college project which I put to good use! My hand hurt for about a day after punching a rainbow of circles. When I had the invitations printed, I also had signs printed which I mounted on foam board and attached to fruit with toothpicks.

For party favors, I put some leftover wedding favor tins to good use! I never would have come up with this idea if I hadn't been cleaning out my guest closet. I hand drew all the little caterpillars on the labels and filled the tins with caterpillar food (skittles).

I displayed monthly pictures on a giant caterpillar going up the stairs. To make it I traced a kitchen plate onto construction paper for perfect circles.

Here's the caterpillar in it's entirety!

I looked EVERYWHERE to find the giant lollipops for the centerpiece I made. Aaaand, I can't remember where it was that I finally found them! I'll update when I think of it. I just re-wrapped them with clear plastic and taped construction paper number 1s to them. Then I stuck them in a plastic bucket. To weight it down I used pennies topped with shiny blue stones (also left over from our wedding and found during the closet clean out).

And since you can't have a party without cake, with the help of my talented sister-in-law and mom we made this beauty out of a bundt cake and stacked sheet cake for the head! I made the cake board by modge podging some of my tissue paper circles. And I designed the cake. I may or may not have made a paper mock up of how it would fit together. I also may or may not have researched where I could buy Grapevines candy (Tom Thumb) because the antenna HAD to be purple. I think I got a little crazy in my quest for a perfect 1st birthday party. ;) My sister-in-law did an awesome job of baking the cake and making icing. And my mom did an awesome job of frosting it!

Random fact that I didn't realize until after choosing to do a caterpillar cake: apparently multiple family members of mine had caterpillar cakes for their first birthdays! So it's totally a tradition now. :)

Of course, the birthday boy needed his own mini smash cake! Don't ask me why I thought  his first experience with icing should involve red and green dye!

After trying to find a mini bundt pan, I realized it would be cheapest and easiest to just order a bundtlet from Nothing Bundt Cakes. After my sister-in-law, they make the best bundt cakes! Besides, when would I ever need to make one mini cake again?

Here's the whole table scape. Cake! Confetti! YAY!

I even made this cute little sign for the bathroom door after seeing a similar one on Pinterest.

One thing is for sure... this mama had fun at this party! And I'm going to scale back a tad for the second birthday party!

Any good party planning tips? What was your favorite party as a kid? I think I'd have to pick my American Girl Doll themed party!

Organizey Shopping: The Kitchen

I would love to go on a shopping spree for gear to organize and decorate every inch of my apartment! But since Mr. Budget says I can't right now, I'm going to start a series called Organizey Shopping. I will be window shopping room by room and share what I would love to buy and why.

First up is the kitchen!

1. I would love to get some canisters like these for the pantry. Not only do they look pretty, they would keep foods like cereal and crackers fresher while making it easy to see what needs to be added to the grocery list. I would definitely opt for square and rectangular ones over round ones because they for side by side snugly without wasted space. {source}

2. This cleanser rack can be installed a cabinet door adding extra storage space for sponges, cleaners, etc. {source}

3. This pull-out lid organizer takes advantage of vertical space and keeps lids easy to access. Currently our lids have a tendency to all fall out when you try to grab one. I do not enjoy the extra dishes to wash! {source}

4. These metal baskets are cute and useful! I would stick them in the pantry and use them to maximize vertical storage space while corralling smaller loose items like Lära Bars and packs of gum. {source}

5. I think it would be fun to use clear shelf liner in the kitchen drawers with pretty scrapbook paper underneath. I would choose a paper with a pattern that tiles well since drawers are typically not 12x12. Wrapping paper is another option. {source} & {source}

6. I love these spice jars! They have chalkboard labels and would look so cute and organized lined up on the kitchen counter or open shelving. {source}

7. We could definitely use something like these drawer organizers for our drawer of miscellaneous kitchen gadgets. It always becomes a jumbled mess because we have nothing to keep things in place. {source}

8. Extra pantry space that is easy to access! This one is a no brainer. {source}

Do you use any of these in your kitchen? What is your favorite tool to keeping your kitchen user-friendly?