Mason's 1st Birthday - Down on the Farm Party

I can't believe my baby boy turned one! On July 14, 2012, at 11:35 am sweet Mason James came into this world. I fell in love with him the moment I laid my eyes on him. He is such an angel and I am blessed to be his mommy. Mason is a special edition to our family and brings so much joy to all of us. He is getting so big and already has quite a personality. He just lights up a room with his smile. I can't wait to see what the future holds for this little boy. Happy Birthday Mason!

We did a birthday/cake smash photo shoot prior to his birthday. 

Pictures: Rose Alene Photography (www.rosealene.com)

Birthday Outfit: Sprinkles of Love Shop on Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/shop/SprinklesOfLove)

We had Mason's 1st Birthday Party this weekend. I've been planning it for the past couple of months! We (I) decided on a farm theme and ran with it (probably a little too far). I just love party planning, paying attention to all the details and obsessing over everything. I am sure my husband loves me for that too. Ha! I know the kid is just a little guy, but you only turn one once, right? We invited all of our family and friends to his big shin dig at The Held Family Farm (our house). Summer is such a busy time so many of my friends were not able to join us. We still had a great time and I appreciate everyone who came out to celebrate our special baby boy's big day!

 Shirt came from Sprinkles of Love Shop on Etsy

I loved these invitations. I ordered them from Mommies Ink Shop on Etsy. 

(http://www.etsy.com/shop/MommiesInk)

I found lots of great decorating ideas on Pinterest. Thanks to Etsy (mostly), Hobby Lobby, Michael's, Oriental Trading, Amazon, and several other websites for helping me pull things together. I had to 'outsource' many of the DIY projects to Etsy because I just didn't have the time to do them on my own. I found many of the farm accents on clearance at Hobby Lobby. Rob would look at me like I was crazy when I would come home with some of these new 'country' pieces. Oh well, we'll probably sell them later at a garage sale.

My clearance find at Menards.

Posters from Shindigz.com

 

 12 months of Mason

Gift favors for the guests. 

 

The dessert table. I ordered the banner off of Etsy from

Angie’s Designz shop (http://www.etsy.com/shop/AngiesDesignz)

 

I found this great idea on Pinterest of just stringing balloons together with thread. It turned out cute.

I had a Groupon for a collage poster, so I used it on a tractor shaped print.

What's a farm party without animals? We had pony rides and a petting zoo. We originally were only going to do pony rides, but Memory Lane Stables offered to include the petting zoo for a reasonable up charge. There was a two goats, some sheep, two bunnies and a pig. It was perfect. The petting zoo was a hit with the kids. They setup shop in the front yard on the driveway and then walked the ponies up and down the sidewalk. I think the kids enjoyed it. The girls that ran the show were awesome too!

Also, a party is not complete without bubbles, a bounce house, water table  and silly animal hats. I searched high and low for a barn bounce house, but had no luck. We had to settle on a sports themed one. We had our bubble machine going and had plenty of bubbles for all of the kids.

Even Uncle Jeff was a good sport.

 

I found a barn themed water table at Buy Buy Baby.

We set up a make-shift photo booth in the garage to try and capture pictures of some of our guests. I just applied fabric to the wall to use as a backdrop and purchased a bale of hay for seating. It worked.

We kept the food pretty simple. I wanted to stick with BBQ, to go with our farm theme. I catered some food and made a handful of things on my own. We ordered pulled pork, barbecue beef brisket and Italian sausage from The Patio. It was good and they are pretty reasonable. I also made hot dogs in the crock pot for the kids, a variety of salads, corn bread muffins and plenty of appetizers.

As for dessert, I tried to offer a variety of options. I ordered the cake from Cathy's Sweet Creations in Plainfield. I went into the bakery with a few ideas and was definitely pleased with the end result. I loved the cake. I also ordered cake pops (www.cakepopcharm.com) because I had bought a groupon a few weeks ago. We also had cupcakes, hay stacks (rice crispy treats), tractor tires (Oreos), chicken feed (chex mix) and dirt cake.

 

Cakepops from cakepopcharm.com

 

Cupcake toppers from Angie’s Designz shop on Etsy.

 

Mason had his own little smash cake. I stripped him down and let him go to town. He definitely loves him some cake!! All of the kids gathered around him and he was so happy.

 

I ordered the high chair banner from Mia Sophias shop on Etsy 

 

Clapping for his cake!

 

Messy guy!!

 

All cleaned up!

Overall, I put a ton of effort into Mason's party and I was pleased with the results! I just wish more of my friends were around to join us for this special day. Mason had fun and was in a great mood for the whole party.  Thank you to everyone who celebrated this little guys birthday with us!!!