Hudson has hand, foot, and mouth disease. Again. Hayes is getting tubes in the morning. Our house went on the market today. Life is busy and I’m cuddling with my boys.
But I dug way down deep in the archives for you!
In honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday, which was on March 2, I wanted to repost the details from Hudson’s first birthday party. This was originally posted in June 2010.
All photos by Wendy Woodall of A Southern Accent!
Because they have such a spacious house, my in-laws offered to let us hold the party at their house. We kind of took over and they were such good sports about letting me move things around to make room for party decorations.
We had two of these cute little orange pinwheels outside with fun green and orange ribbon tied to them. And my mom added the ribbon and the Green Eggs and Ham book to the wreath.
When guests walked in, we asked them to sign the “guest book” which was copy of Green Eggs and Ham. I wanted Hudson to have a keepsake from the big day of who was there to celebrate his first year!
In the house, immediately to the right of the front door is the dining room where we set up the dessert table. My mom is a candy buffet master and hauled all of her beautiful containers all the way from Dallas. We also had cake balls and cupcakes in addition to all of the jelly beans, M&Ms, gummy orange and lime slices, circus peanuts, lollypops, and rock candy.
We used plain white table cloths, but cut out circles in green and orange to make it more festive.
Heading into the family room, we hung an adorable banner with Hudson’s name on it.
The family room is such a large space and we needed a good way to get the green and orange in there, so I decided to rent a helium tank and buy two packs of green and orange balloons. My dad, my FIL, and I spent a large part of the morning on Saturday blowing up, tying, and attaching ribbon to the balloons.
We played the video I made for Hudson in the family room and decorated the mantle with orange flowers in green buckets. I found the paper umbrellas and paper lanterns and decided to use them to decorate the fireplace. The adorable “Happy Birthday Hudson” banner is one of my favorite things!
On the back wall of the family room, I displayed all of Hudson’s monthly pictures in green and orange buckets filled with jelly beans. The orange polka dot table runner added such a great splash of color and the “Celebrate” painting looked perfect there! (p.s. I’ll be doing a giveaway based on that “Celebrate” painting later this week!)
The main food was in the kitchen and at the breakfast table. We served hot dogs, barbecue, macaroni and cheese, baked beans, and of course, green (deviled) eggs and ham!
The party favors, in addition to the candy, were sugar cookies iced to look like a green ham!
We had a lot of fun with the drinks! In the canisters, we served Arnold Palmers or “adult lemonade” and regular lemonade in the other canister. We found cute green and white striped straws to go with the drinks.
Then in green buckets on stands, we had Jones soda in orange cream and green apple flavor. We also had bottled water (that I individually labeled), beer, and juice boxes.
At the end of the party, we passed around creamsicles and limesicles made with either orange Crush, orange sherbet, and vanilla ice cream or 7-Up, lime sherbet, and vanilla ice cream. Like a Coke float, but even better! So yummy!
my beautiful cousin with her orange creamsicle!
The party was truly a labor of love. Between TC and me, my parents, and TC’s parents, everyone worked so hard to make this a great party. We are so thankful for the love and support that Hudson has all around him.
It took a few months to get everything planned and brought together from rolling silverware at night while watching The Bachelorette and cutting out foam circles during nap time.
Loved that you re-posted this! A great party like this deserves to be seen again! If the little peanut that I’m caring right now turns out to be a little boy I have a feeling I will be referencing this post somewhere down the line for one of his parties!
omg! what a beautiful, BEAUTIFUL party (and memories) you created. you are a gifted party planner erin. reading this makes me want to have a baby – so i can steal every single idea. i especially *love* the ‘guest book’!
Erin, you are so creative! I love seeing the neat things that you do for your boys – you make everything so special. I am trying to remember all of your creative ideas so that when I have kids one day, I can make them feel as special on their birthdays and special events as Hudson and Hayes are sure to! And good luck with the selling of your home. Hopefully you won’t have any trouble finding a buyer!
Poor Hudson! I hope that he feels better soon. Also, this is one of my favorite kids’ birthday parties of all time- everything is so cute!
Erin, I cannot believe that it has already been two years since you first posted Hudson’s 1st birthday! It feels as though it was just yesterday I bookmarked this post for inspiration – I think you spurred the creativity in so many – it truly is a talent of yours! So glad you re-posted it!
I have special needs child who needs a lot of “extras” when it comes to celebrations because he doesnt understand them like typical kid. I did a similar party for him for his 5 year party, we used his favorite book at the time, “we’re goin on a near hunt”. We printed off all hear pictures from the book and sent out on a bear hunt around the neighborhodFulfilling the events of te book and taking pictures. Of course at he end when we got back to the house. Daddy was. Sitting with a build a bear for the Peyton. It was adorable. We took lots of pictures all over the Neighborhood to make into a scrapbook.
Hi Erin,
I’ve been reading your blog a while now and love it. I remember this birthday post, love it then and love it now. It’s so details, colors, deco, food, drinks, everything seem so perfect. I hope to be an awesome mom like you one day.
What an amazing party! LOVE all of the details that make it all so special and come together so well.
I’m so glad you reposted this.. I need to get on the ball planning my daughters first b’day.. in three short months. =( loved all the cute ideas! you outdid yourself for sure. I would love to know what that is that you used for your cupcake displays and where you got that? Is it actually a cupcake stand or several cake plates put together? Really cute.. Thanks for sharing again!
Hi Erin! I love reading your blog. I am hosting a wedding shower soon and I love the look of the paper puff hanging from your light fixture. Could you let me know where you bought them? Or did you make them? Thanks so much. Kelley Siemon (Edina, MN)
what an adorable birthday! You did such a fabulous job!
I hope you know that any time I talk about the cutest first birthday party, it’s Hudson’s! I have emailed that link to so many people, it’s not even funny. It is seriously the cutest party ever…and I can’t wait to see Hayes’ pictures soon 🙂
Hey Erin 🙂
Back from Hawaii and just catching up! I loved Hudson’s bday party and remember it well! The colors, the attention to every detail, it was adorable!! Sounds like you’ve had your hands full and I’m sorry it’s been so rough lately. Prayers for your little guys to feel better.
Laura