RUPERT’S BEAR THEMED BIRTHDAY PARTY
Trước khi Rupert tròn 1 tuổi, suốt vài tháng nay, đây là suy nghĩ không thể xa rời được của tôi. Cuộc chờ đợi rất căng thẳng! Tôi tự gắn lên mình một áp lực vô lý khi làm những việc như thế này. NHƯNG, tôi thích đeo chiếc mũ tổ chức tiệc và bắt đầu làm – nó giúp tôi phân tán!
Cho đến hai tuần trước tiệc sinh nhật đầu tiên của Rupert, chủ đề sẽ là “chuyến du lịch đầu tiên xung quanh mặt trời”. Hãy tưởng tượng về mặt trăng, mặt trời và các ngôi sao. Tôi đã tìm kiếm các sản phẩm trực tuyến, nhưng do để việc tổ chức quá muộn nên không có gì thu hút tôi, (tôi chỉ làm lời mời trên điện thoại bằng một ứng dụng). Tôi không thực sự tìm thấy những gì tôi muốn cho ngày đó, vì vậy tôi loại bỏ chủ đề đó và nhanh chóng gõ “tiệc gấu” trên Pinterest. Vậy là xong. Tôi chưa từng đặt hàng nhiều trang trí tiệc như vậy trong thời gian ngắn như vậy!
I have always loved throwing parties, I love having a theme and setting up a space. We hosted Christmas dinner for the first time a couple of years ago and I think that is when I developed a real love for it and have been coming up with reasons to throw a party ever since!
Pinterest is my first port of call and then a few party supplying websites to get a general idea of what it is I want to do. I break everything down into categories, such as food, table decorations, cake etc. I am not very good at arts and crafts – so as much as I love putting everything together, it has to be stuff I can order – ready made – so I can place it where I want it. (Much less stressful too!).
OKAY, LET’S GO.
DECORATIONS
I have a few ‘go to’ places when it comes to buying party decorations, The Original Party Bag Company being the main one. They stock two of my favourite brands, Ginger Ray & Meri Meri. I got all of the paper plates and napkins from there.
Party Pieces is my other fave and is where I spotted the ‘Adventure Awaits’ garland – which is now half price! We always talk about adventure as a family, it seems to be an ongoing rhetoric so this was perfect.
You have probably seen the age by photos garland before, it seems as though everyone who has a baby turning one hangs one of these up at their party! It is such a wonderful way to see how they have changed month by month. I bought this one from Amazon and glued 4×6 photos onto each month so there was a bit of a border. I’ve kept this and put it in his memory box because I’m a bit sentimental like that!
The little trees and pinecones were left over from Christmas, all from Hobbycraft. The confetti filled balloons were also Hobbycraft but by Ginger Ray.
One of my favourite little touches were the tree stump place settings. I cut up some brown card and used my Dymo, (honestly so handy to have!) to make labels. I made signs for the food which said, ‘forest berries’, ‘sticks’, (bought twiglets just for this reason!) ‘firewood’ and the sausage rolls were ‘bears in blankets’. A nice touch which took minutes to set up.
FOOD
Party food. There is nothing quite like it. I always tend to stick to the same bits but then this time threw in some extras – purely to fit the bear/woodland theme. I always go to Marks & Spencer Food online and order one of their 30 piece chicken packs. All you have to do is pop them in the oven and they always go first!
Pizza, sausage rolls, chips and cocktail sausages are always big hits. Nothing very creative but just hearty food that makes me feel very nostalgic and everyone loves a classic. I always order a couple of salads from M&S too, the standard one and this time I got the Greek one which went down a treat.
If you are here for themed party food then you won’t be surprised to see that Pom Bears made it onto the table! I bought a bear shaped cutter and a woodland cutter set for the sandwiches – both the kids and the adults loved this touch!
I didn’t manage to get a photo of the desserts before they were descended upon but I normally do a couple of options for the adults – one of them being chocolate. We had apple crumble, meringues with berries and a chocolate trifle. The kids polished off an entire jelly! Oh and I also made some brookies which is an old recipe of Lily Pebbles and called them rocks!
Usually, I do some sort of ‘sweet’ table for all of the party people. You know the ones that stay a lot longer than anyone else, talking in the kitchen until goodness knows what hour or dancing to the YMCA? People always want nibbles. Trail Mix isn’t really something we see in the UK but when I was looking for inspiration for the party it kept coming up again and again on the US sites.
WELL. I should have made one triple the size! Traditionally, it looks as though a trail mix is made up of granola, dried fruits, nuts and sometimes chocolate. Mine was mostly chocolate. And a bit of cereal for good measure, (mainly because it fit the theme!). Here is what I put in mine:
MalteasersMinstrelsMilky Bar ButtonsDairy Milk Giant Chocolate ButtonsTeaser ButtonsTwirl BitesCheeriosTeddy Grahams – I ordered a box of these from eBay
I found some woodland themed stickers online and stuck them onto brown paper bags for people to fill with as much of the trail mix as they wanted. The sign was a printable download from Etsy which I popped in a frame we already had.
I had seen the wonderful Mirlah from @themrsproject use @bkbiscuitco on Instagram for her son’s birthday and loved the idea! They come individually wrapped and last about a month. I handed any spare out to the adults as they were leaving or to anyone who couldn’t make the party. The @bkbiscuitco delivered big time – they were incredible and Beth was a pleasure to communicate with.
CAKE
I had already ordered a cake for the star theme we were originally going with, so I had some very last minute changes to make with the cake makers!
I went for a ‘naked cake’, which had a cookies & cream flavoured sponge with vanilla buttercream, so the darkness of the sponge would show through. The pinecones, wooden stars & foliage were bits I already had, they were all from Hobbycraft.
The girls that made the cake were amazing and literally took the picture I had in my head and brought it to life. I like to go for 6″ cakes of about 3 to 4 layers – the wooden board was one I bought from eBay, they’re not very pricey at all.
Bow & Beaus is a company I have followed on Instagram for a while, in case I should ever need some animal cake toppers, (you never know!). Their website is stocked full of different animals, which you can customise however you like. I chose the Mama and the Baby Bear which now live in Rupert’s bedroom! I also bought the little banner from them.
The cake was my favourite thing about the whole day. It brought everything together so beautifully and was admired – and tasted – by everybody!
PARTY BAGS
I filled little brown paper bags that I bought from Hobbycraft, and on each one used my Dymo machine to write the child’s name. We had a range of ages so I pretty much did them all their own, age appropriate party bag! For the babies, I put in some bubbles, a little bucket for the bath, (both from Flying Tiger, a Lanka Kade wooden figure and a mini book. I bought the Paddington Bear little library and split the set between the party bags – Roo loves these books & they went with the theme!
The older kids got chocolate, a Flump, one got a spy pen, I put in a lego figure and some baking bits. They all seemed to love them! One of our friends gave Tommy a hamper full of his favourite things for his birthday, I popped all of the bags in here ready to hand out at the end of the party – so easy to do and looked lovely.
FINISHING TOUCHES
Tommy & I bought Rupert a teepee for his birthday and it worked really well as a bit of a prop at his party. I filled it with any teddy bears he had and books which related to bears too. The little kids loved it in here! The one we have is from Verbaudet, it came with a really good discount and I love the style of it! The mat was from the same website but it comes separately, it is a soft fabric on one side and waterproof on the other.
A FEW TOP TIPS
> Set the start time to suit your babies nap time! At 12 months, Rupert was sleeping until between 2pm & 3pm each day. The party started at 2pm and when he woke up I got him dressed and bought him downstairs to a house full of people!
I didn’t worry about him still being asleep when people arrived, it meant everyone could settle and get a drink. It meant I wasn’t stressing about Rupert being tired and he was as happy as could be when woke up!> PLAN, PLAN, PLAN. Every single minor detail. The more you do before the day, no matter how trivial it may seem, the less you have to do on the day! Which meant I was a tad more relaxed – ish.> If you have older kids coming, let them explore the garden! Come rain or shine they were out there all day kicking a ball about and playing with the dogs. They also make fab little helpers, if they ask for a job, give them one!> Don’t feel you have to open all of the presents at once, there and then. We asked if anybody would like to see theirs being opened and opened ones from grandparents but we saved lots for the next day and the one after that! Also – you don’t have to wrap all of the presents! Roo enjoyed ripping the paper off a couple but was more excited just to see everything set out. > Buy more food than you think you will need!> TAKE PHOTOS. Lot’s of them ?
