So since Carter couldn’t walk properly (unassisted) for his 1st birthday party, I decided to re-purpose his walker into a Walker-mobil! That way, I thought he’d be perfectly on-theme as he trundled around the party. This only semi worked, because whilst he was very happy zooming around with his walker at the start of the party, it was totally neglected by him during the party because he was too busy super-gluing himself to myself or my Dad.

On the plus side, other kids had fun pushing it around during the party, so at least it didn’t go to waste!

 

This centerpiece below was what I considered my piece de resistance. It was SO hard to do, and took SO long!! But to be honest, it kinda got ‘lost’ among all the other decor, so it wasn’t really noticed 🙁 

I got a long piece of curved styrofoam, and covered it with gold wrapping paper. Then, I stuck in superhero and wording cutouts (mounted on long sticks), as well as chupa chups. Now those were the KILLER.

 

So yeah, those chupa chups? Each of them had a mini cape, plus a mask! Look reaaalllyyy closely at the picture below and you’ll see them. I made a mistake and printed those out about 50% smaller, so they were horrifically difficult to cut out, not to mention super fiddly to glue on.

On top of all that, NOBODY noticed them anyway!! Arggghhhh…. My poor superhero chupa chups. No recognition for them whatsoever 😉

 

The HAPPY BIRTHDAY flag bunting actually took awhile too, as Chris, his Dad and I cut them out on paper, then cut out cardboard backing to mount them onto, then threaded gold elastic string. But I LOVED LOVED LOVED the look.

Psssstttttt!! Did you notice in the pic below that “D” and “A” are both blue? I didn’t quite plan the lettering, hence the mistake. Again, no one at the party noticed, so it didn’t matter 😉

 

Then I simply printed out nice backgrounds on A4 sheets of paper, cut them out (using the above Happy Birthday lettering as a template), and mounted on cardboard. Instant theme bunting! I thought they were cute 🙂

 

We also made big cut-outs words on paper, then mounted them on cardboard and stuck sticks onto the back.

And I made 2 speech bubbles, laminated them and stuck them on sticks too. The idea was that people could use a whiteboard marker to write stuff on them, to take pics! But errrr… everyone was too busy chasing their kids around and/or eating and swimming, to take photos at the photobooth!!

 

 

And the superhero cut-outs. There were maybe 100 or so of these, in varying sizes. They were a real b!tch to do! But worth it as we could slap them all around the clubhouse, stick them on sticks and into food, and decorate the cake table etc etc. And since the theme of the party was centered around these guys, I thought they were critical.

Lots of people noticed how cute the superheroes were, and I thought so too. Since it’s a 1st birthday party, I didn’t want the ‘proper’ superheroes since their official merchandise is actually quite dark coloured and not cutesy at all. So these worked perfectly – I got the digital images on Etsy!

 

I also pasted a bunch of cut-outs onto straws, meant to be used with the paper cups that I also decorated. But… errrr.. I left them all on the cake table and forgot to take them outside to the catering table, so they didn’t get used! But I ended up giving them away as “take home presents”, so it worked 🙂

 

 

And see the little balls lined up on the table below??

 

Those were our super hero stress balls! We wrapped 1 cup of rice in clingfilm, then stuffed it into a balloon (with the end cut off), and used another balloon (also with end cut off) to wrap over the other end. Then I drew on a little face.

Ta daaaa!

Instant rice-filled stress balls.

They’re pretty easy to make, very cheap to buy the materials, and are a cute “take home present” for the kids.

 

The party favors? I made the decision to not give out a bag of candy and random little presents, and sink all the money into ONE item – a superhero cape. I figured it’d be the most practical gift that can be reused for years, and would come in handy should any kind not have a cape at the party!

So I splurged and bought these capes on Etsy, and got them shipped from the USA to Singapore. I bought red & blue takeaway boxes and stuffed the capes into them, as well as a matching glitter paper mask, a little bottle of bubbles to blow, and a Japanese marshmallow.

The boxes were tied up with red and blue ribbon, and I stuck on more superhero cutout signs. Each box was personalised with a Superhero ID Card with their name and super power!

I was pretty chuffed with how the party boxes turned out, because I felt they were a lot more personalised than the norm, and I was proud of how much effort went into these. Frankly though, not sure if I’d do this much again for a subsequent birthday party!

 

And Carter was so indulged in a whole bunch of super thoughtful presents from his friends!! He scored lots of adorable clothes, plus loads of fun toys – a real treat for him since almost all of his toys are 2nd hand from Hunter.

I am opening them very slowly, one by one… so he gets to fully enjoy each one before the excitement of opening a new one!

 

 

We had a SUPER fun party!! It was heaps of effort cos of the DIY stuff, but I’d do it all over again because I wanted his 1st birthday party to be special.

He is a very blessed boy to have such indulgent and adoring relatives, and caring friends! Next year, he’s expected to say “thank you” properly to everyone that attends his party 😉

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY, my precious littlest baby!!!! To many, many more wonderful celebrations 🙂