Leo Barnett Turns One!

I honestly do not know how it is possible. A whole year has passed since Leo entered our lives. What a year it was! Celebrating his first birthday was a must, but difficult for my husband and I to plan. We went back and forth on what we should do and how we should do it. Read on to learn what we decided on and how it turned out!

***There are a lot of links in this post. They are just that - links - not affiliate links. I love shouting out and supporting small businesses!***

I started thinking about Leo's birthday when he was around 9 months. It felt crazy to plan because it still felt like it was far away. I knew I needed to get going though.

My husband and I had our nanny come on a Saturday so that we could go to his office and make plans uninterrupted. We talked about having something super small at our house with family. We also talked about having something much larger with friends with kids. Neither one felt right quite right though.

After thinking of pros and cons we decided to have the bigger party with friends, family, and kids. We made the choice to have it a restaurant. The thought of cleaning our house before and after seemed way too daunting to me. I would rather spend more to be able to walk away from the mess!

#whoswithme

Leo was born on Cinco de Mayo. So, that obviously meant that we needed a fiesta theme! Luckily there are so many fun fiesta party items out there. I pretty much could have bought every single thing I saw on Etsy...

I decided to contain myself. Just a bit.

The first item to check off was the invite. I bought this one from Etsy and edited it myself. We then took (about a thousand) photos of Leo in a sombrero to put on the back of the invite. I printed them through mpix.com - my favorite.

The party was planned for lunch time and the restaurant already had a lot of decorations. I bought some maracas, confetti, and tiny sombreros to put on the tables.

I had been taking monthly pictures of Leo, so I knew I wanted to display them. I found this perfect banner for it.

We had 15 kids coming to the party. I was super worried about having them all entertained within a small room. I looked into having an entertainer come - but it just felt funny for a one year old. I ended up putting together little favor buckets for them. I had them out at the beginning so that they could play with them throughout the party. I picked up the supplies from Target (my jam) and Party City (also my jam.) I put different items in them depending on how old the kiddo was. The fake mustaches were the hit for the big kids and the maracas were the favorite for the littles!

We decided to bring in our own dessert. I had a super tiny smash cake made for Leo (I think I paid $5 - I was happy about that because he didn't eat it!) and our favorite cupcakes for the kids and adults. We also had royal icing sugar cookies made for favors. I sat those out by the door.

We brought Leo's high chair to the restaurant and put an adorable banner on it. I found this perfect one from Etsy.  

Deciding what Leo would wear was the last detail that was hard to figure out. I finally decided on two shirts because I knew we would most likely need an outfit change. I found an adorable Uno shirt from here and a cute fiesta shirt from here. We still wear both! (We clearly didn't get great pictures of either!)

I also ordered him a bib with his name on it for when it was time to eat cake. I found so many adorable onesies for little ones to wear, but they all seemed meant for girls. I was happy with the bib and she sent it to me super quick!

During the actual party I tried my best to stay in the moment and visit. I didn't even take one picture - luckily Leo has the best uncle (and I have the best brother) that took all of these great pictures. I highly recommend having someone at the party that can help you with that!

All in all it was such a great day celebrating our favorite little man. One year is such a big milestone for both him and ourselves. I wouldn't have changed a thing about our fiesta!

What have you done for a first birthday party? Or second? Is it too early to start planning...😉