1st birthday party planning mayhem!

I am so excited for Joaquin’s first birthday. Not really because of the party, or the cake, but because I cannot believe he’s one. I know any other mom with a one year old agrees that it has to be the fastest year of all time. I knew I wanted to have a small get together with close friends and family and I also knew I wanted to keep it simple. I picked invitations first before anything else – and gravitated towards these immediately, and without a thought I ordered them last week at 11pm only to remember the next day when I saw a confirmation email. Online shopping late at night is my vice. Okay here it is:

from tiny prints.

Sorry it’s a little blurry, I took it with my phone – but you get the picture! I love color, I love bold color, and I do a love a good rainbow. So then I thought what would be easier than tying in the invite to a general theme of bright colors and rainbows! That’s when the paint swatch idea was born. We’ll see how it goes, but for now the plan is do decorate the party simply and easily (I hope) with all different color paint swatches from the hardware store. I’ll have to make several trips and pocket them very slyly, can’t get caught hoarding paint chips because that would be embarrassing.

{via 551eastfurnituredesign}

There are so many inspirational posts and images of 1st birthday parties I had to share – but note that these are simple ideas that won’t break your back or your bank. It’s not a wedding after all!

I love this number one shaped with photos. So cute and creative, and if you have a million photos of your one year old, which every parent of a one year old does, this is great.

{via babble.com}

And while I always thought the poofs were cute and definitely tried my hand at making them, these paper lanterns work for me. What’s great is once you buy them, anytime you have a party you can throw them up. Especially if they’re in colors like these and not baby blue or baby pink.

{via hostess with the mostess}

And I love a sweets table with photos of the birthday boy above it – too cute.

{via project nursery}

Hunting the web for kids party ideas is fun – but it can be easy to fall into what I call “The Pinterest Pressure.” Moms (and even some dads) are exhausting themselves silly trying to plan the most DIY elaborate creative party that the internet has ever seen, and standards seem so much higher if you are a Pinterest user yourself. Just this morning while Joaquin was napping and I was browsing, I started having thoughts like, “Dude if I don’t make his cake myself and get a professional photographer I am a horrible Mom…” Wait, what? Chill out, me. I love creating cute things and I love planning, so his party will be part DIY and part MMLE – make my life easier. We’ll have fun with it, we’ll eat yummy food, he’ll scarf his cake, and he’ll forget it by the next day. And it’s all good. Let’s be real – 1st birthday parties aren’t for the kids anyway!