Owen's vintage circus 1st birthday: the party

Our boy is one! I really cannot believe it. What a precious year it has been with him. He is asleep laying here next to me as I type, mouth open and drooling, and looking so cute. We love him so much!

Several months ago Paul and I decided we wanted to plan a party to celebrate this year we have had together. It was really fun to see all the plans come together on the big day. He had a blast playing with his friends, listening to Grandma read the Circus Ship, watching Cody juggle, gobbling up his cake and celebrating at a vintage circus with friends and family. When he is older he will always be able to look back at the pictures and know what a special day it was. 

I think it is only appropriate, as you read this post, for you to be humming classic circus tunes. During the party we had a playlist of some favorite "circus" songs, including Entry of the Gladiators, a few songs from Dumbo and Animal Crackers in my Soup (not exactly a classic circus song, but animal crackers are circus-ish, and what kid doesn't love that song?!)

After the party was over and the guests had gone Paul kissed me and said, "it was a perfect party for our sweet boy". We had so much fun planning a special day together for Owen. We left the party a little more rosy cheeked and feeling like we had spent the day at the circus. 

I had such a hard time picking pictures to post. I still added way too many. Oops. :) I will be posting the "eating his birthday cake" pictures, the gift I made him and his 1 year monthly portrait soon. 

Here are a few of the things we had at the party...
Wool pom pom garland - I made it with black embroidery thread, an embroidery needle, fabric glue and wool balls from Ta Da Studio Felt on etsy
Elephant balancing on ball painting - Jasper and Ruby on etsy
Bunting (yard, cake and drink table bunting)- I made it with fabric from JoAnns
Large round balloons - Shop Sweet Lulu
Aqua stripped straws - Shop Sweet Lulu
Ball mason jars - online at Kmart with coupon codes and free shipping they came out to 65 cents each after tax and shipping
Mason jar drink dispensers - $15 at World Market
Red and white stripe tablecloth - fabric from onlinefabricstore.net
Party favor bags - Bought a vintage deck of cards, soft transfer paper and cotton baggies from the Everlasting Posy on etsy
Lion picture prop - My sister painted it

Owen's vintage circus 1st birthday: the preparation

We had fun preparing for Owen's 1st birthday. Having him this year has been one of the biggest joys Paul and I have ever experienced. I loved dreaming up ideas for a day to celebrate. I wanted to make plans and get things done plenty ahead of time so when the day came we could be with him. The pictures above are from different times that we made things for his party. It was so fun to see it all come together as we hung the bunting, made the cake and got all the last minute things together.I can't wait to share the pictures from his party! 

Push em' Pull em' parade

Happy 4th of July! What did you do for the 4th? Every year we join friends at a festive 4th of July party. It is the cutest 4th of July party you have ever seen. They start the party off with a Push em' Pull em' parade! All the kids dress up and decorate some thing to be pushed in or pulled in (or ride on). Paul pulled Owen in his new red wagon my parents gave him for his first birthday. He dragged his blue dump truck behind him filled with his favorite animals all dressed up. What could be cuter then a whole bunch of kids all dressed up in a parade? We had an egg toss contest, pie eating contest and ate a yummy dinner before heading down the hill to have homemade ice cream while waiting for the fireworks. Owen had a blast! He even liked the fireworks! He looked up with big eyes and said "whooow".