It Was a Monster Mash

When it came time to plan Hunter's birthday party, I kind of HAD to do a monster theme.  First off, he is our little monster.  Secondly, it was October and I  was eight kinds of psyched for Halloween.  

I had an idea of what I wanted the invites to look like, and after searching Etsy, I couldn't find anything I liked.  So I did what I always do: do it my damn self.  

I really had to make a dollar stretch, but at the same time the dude only turns one once.  I relied heavily on wiggle eyes and cardstock to bring this bash together.

I did a simple lunch spread of sandwiches,  veggies and fruit with dips and chips. I hung a paper banner over the window, the doorway of the kitchen and our banister in the living room. 

If you look on the left, you can see I started to add little monster faces to the banner but ran out of time.  Hunter didn't seem to upset.

I ordered a 6 ft hoagie tray from our local super market and cut it into individual sizes, holding it together with a wiggle eye glued to a toothpick.

I didn't want to do flowers for centerpieces, so I glued wiggle eyes to cardstock and slipped it into cheap IKEA vases I had around the house.  I added tissue paper for "hair".

Tissue paper pomanders hung above Hunter's high chair

We printed out all of his monthly photos and hung them for guests to see.  General consensus was he changed the most between months eight and nine.

There are a row of about 4 or so houses on our street that look exactly like ours.  Since a couple family members hadn't been to our house before, I wanted to make sure they didn't end up knocking on our neighbors door.  We blew up balloons, tied them together with twine and hung them from the porch gables. 

 I think that's pretty noticeable, right?

Hunter had his own smash cake to destroy, but guests were welcome to dine on monster whoopie pies (not pictured dammit) and alien cupcakes

All the kids were sent home with goodie bags that contained bubbles, candy necklace, and a felt monster doll.

Any extra balloons we had leftover were tossed on the floor for the kids to kick around, which they wasted no time in doing

The rest of the guests mingled and caught up with each other.

our newest nephew Mitchell and his mom, Heather

JEGs, Clint, Aunt Marlene and Uncle Gary.

The birthday boy wanted to join the party outside

hey guys, can I come out?

no, seriously, let me come out

Around 3:00 we all gathered in the kitchen to sing Happy Birthday.  I helped him blow out the candles  and let him rip into his cake.  At first he just licked the icing off, but with a little help, he eventually tore into the cake.

My FIL wasn't unable to attend due to foot surgery, so we Skyped

at first I was like...

and then I was like !!!!

After a quick wardrobe change, we sat down to open presents.  Hunter lasted for exactly one gift: the first gift we opened was a fire truck, and he took it into the kitchen to play with it.

As the family started to filter out around 5:00, our friends stuck around and we began the "Lizzie and JEGs Surivived the First Year" party.  We put Hunter to bed, set up a bonfire in the back yard and toasted to the craziest year of our lives.  

A couple weeks later, I sent out his thank you cards:

When it was all said and done, I think it was a pretty successful party.  I have to give a special shout out to my neighbor, Amy, for coming over and helping me glue little wiggle eyes to toothpicks.  And then hiding a bunch around the house (a month and a half later, I'm still finding them ;)

I really really need to say thank you to my cousin Tara.  She came in from Pittsburgh for the party and was practically like my personal assistant for the weekend.  She helped me decorate, bake cupcakes, blow up balloons, set up and attend to the child while I did things like shower.  She seriously helped me hold onto my sanity.

I can't believe my baby boy is a year old.  It's killing me.

Always & Forever,
  ME