Aiden's First Birthday..MONSTER PARTY!

I love to plan a party. I love everything about it but mostly, I love the details. I will be the first one to admit that I tend to go a little overboard with party planning but it feeds my creative soul. I just love it. Today I want to share with you what I did for this little guys first birthday party last week....

One of the secrets that I'll share with planning a child's birthday party (or for any party) is to PLAN EARLY! My sister (my party planning sidekick) and I talked about Aiden's theme for his first birthday while I was pregnant! LOL The reason for this? Because you will find SO much that will fit your theme when your not even looking. I kept everything in a tote and bought anything that I loved. For example, I found a few things in the Target dollar spot. If I hadn't known my theme, those items would no longer be there when I need them.

So this year's theme was MONSTERS. As you can see in Aiden's photo (above), he had his fun to be one monster bib and underneath? a lil' cake monster outfit. :) Okay, onto the party details....the monster lootbags....

These were fun to make. I just added some googly eyes to colored bags and drew faces with markers. I printed out each child's name and then used a banner die-cut to cut them out. A peek inside the bags...

Monster stickers, monster buttons, monster rings, monster stuffed animals, monster pencils, monster finger puppets, monster fruit snacks, monster tatoos, monster coloring books, and monster crayons(not pictured).

Onto the menu...

You will have to forgive me on the lack of photos here. That is the one thing that I slacked on. It's REALLY difficult to be hostess, mommy, chef, organizer, kid activity leader, and photographer all at the same time! So the MONSTER MENU (which was all written on a chalkboard) consisted of (for the adults). Ted's famous chili, hot ham and cheese sandwiches and for the kids, Monster grilled cheeses.....

Don't worry about all those crusts...they didn't go to waste....my dad was caught eating all of them... :)

Off the subject but in the picture you can see I had out Aiden's first year scrapbook (very proud to say it's completed!) and a slideshow of pics of him from his first year on my Ipad. 

Okay, back to food....

I had monster fruit kabobs to go with the monster grilled cheese...

and some popcorn to snack on. I found some paper loot bags that worked out great to hold the popcorn. All the food was a big hit! ...

I can't forget to share the cake. My super gifted friend Christy made Aiden a monster cake.....

and cake pop monster eyes for the guests...

Aiden was hesitant about the cake from the start. LOL ...

Even maw-maw tried to convince him...

She even tried a cupcake....not happening...lol

but Aiden's cousin, Molly LOVED it...

Onto the activities...I knew I wanted the kids to have something to do while guests arrive and the food was being prepared so I got sweet Alex to draw me some monsters on posterboard and taped them to the wall. I did this because I knew I wanted them to color but wanted something different then just having them color at the table. The kids LOVED it. I think it made them feel like artists and they were happy to show off their masterpieces...

Cousin Taylor...

and Cousin Lydia...

The kids also worked on making monster masks...

J.T. was happy to pose for me...

and Taylor..

Oh, see that stamp on Taylor's hand? That was a "prize" for playing a game. Stamps are a great prize and are usually something that you already have on hand.

Not only did Alex help with the drawing of the monsters, but he also helped by putting on the monster tattoos...

His girlfriend Ashley also helped by giving the girls a monster manicure. These two are the best teenagers in the world...

I also wanted something fun for Aiden and Molly to do...they LOVED the ball pit...very age appropriate for them. Oh, and that is a crab swimming pool that I turned into a ball pit..it looked just like a monster....

The kids also had fun playing monster bowling. Aiden just liked watching...

I also had the kids help me make glow in the dark monster slime. They actually took it into the bathroom, turned off the lights and yelled, "It really glows!". I had some monster ziplock bags to put it in....

This little guy had fun opening presents...

The drum that mommy and dadd got him was one of his favorites. I think he will take after his brother...

And if only a picture had sound!Whenever we would say, "Be a Monster Aiden!"...he would say, "rawr". This is how it looks...lol....

And every little detail was worth it to make this little guy smile...

I love you sweet boy. Happy first birthday! :)