Peanut's "A is for Abraham" First Birthday Party

I started thinking about Peanut's first birthday when he was, I don't know, 8 months or so. I searched Etsy and Pinterest for inspiration, and came across lots of adorable parties. Like Noah's Ark, circuses, cars and trucks... But nothing seemed just right.

Finally, I decided to keep it really simple. A is for Abraham. My cousin gave Peanut a stuffed alligator, which we have since named Al E. Gator, and is one of my favorite of Abe's stuffed toys.



A is for Abraham, Alligator, and with an October birthday, Apples seemed like a good way to round out the theme.

And with that, the invitation was born!


For decorations, I stuck with just a few tissue paper pompoms (made following this tutorial, except I used 10 pieces of tissue per pompom instead of the 8 recommended. I wanted them big and puffy!).


We served chili over rice and cut veggies. And there was mac 'n cheese for the kiddos who don't like spicy. Peanut eats whatever you put in front of him, but I'm lucky like that. ;-)

It's not a party without a banner...


...or a dessert table.


Again, for a first birthday, I kept it really quite small and simple. But that doesn't mean it wasn't delicious. These are Abe's favorite breakfast muffins. Well, I don't give him cream cheese frosting on his breakfast muffins, but they're carrot-zucchini muffins. I use applesauce instead of oil, and I use about half the sugar. And they're still worthy of being birthday cupcakes. Oh, and in case you missed it a few seconds ago, I used a cream cheese frosting instead of the maple one.


I tried these apple pie cookies, and they were sooo worth the time it took to make them. Actually, Mimi and I made them together, assembly-line style, and it went pretty quickly. Enlist a friend! Trust me, it's worth it!


Another big hit was Mimi's famous sugar cookies. Yup. Those are little alligators


I printed out all of Peanut's weekly photos and strung them around the room. It was pretty wild to see the full progression printed out in front of me. Again, totally worth the effort it took every week to get him in that basket. If you're wondering if you should do it for your little one, you won't regret it! See the full series here.






For a little parting gift, we bagged a few of the cookies, and I designed wraps for bubbles I got at the dollar store. I thought they might be something fun to do with the kids at the party, since they were all under 3 years old. It ended up being cold and drizzly, so we all stayed inside, and the kids ran around and played and ate.






All in all, it was a very fun day celebrating our little one year old. :-)

For more information on the A is for Abraham birthday suite, which can be customized for any name and animal, or fruit, or whatever you want, check out the listing in my shop.