A Life In Review

Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope that you are spending the day with someone you love, even if that is your kids!

We had a BLAST throwing this party, but I had a hard time finding inspiration for it so a lot of these ideas came from us and our hockey loving friends. I also got some inspiration from a Canadian friend of mine over at her blog Courageously Navigating. She thew her son a hockey party a couple years ago and I took notes (literally).

What: First birthday party
When: Any time of year, but hockey season is extra fun
Where: We had it at home, but if you have a local hockey rink that does parties that would be so cute.
Theme: The Great ONE
Colors Used: Black, Yellow and White (you can change it based on you team)

Food: We had so much fun with the food for this party. It was sports party and when I think of sports I always think of food. This is where we spent most of our money and time (the day of the party). Everything turned out great though and I think you can pick and choose what you want to use. Pizza will also always work for a sports party. I set it up like a concession stand, so you will notice that the food is themed as such.

Sticks: Chocolate covered pretzels with tootsie rolls at the end || Pucks: Chocolate Rice Krispy Treats shaped like pucks || Candy: Any candy will work || Nachos: We just did simple chorizo and cheese nachos || Mini Warm Pretzels: I just bought the frozen ones || Hot Dogs: The cheapest options here || Wings: We used some fancy sauce that we brought back with us from J. Timothy’s tavern. They do ship if you want to have the best wings ever for the party, but you can really make any wings, or just buy pre-flavored ones.

Beverages: Apple Juice and Water

This is one of the ideas I got right from my friend Crystal’s blog and it was so cute and quite the hit. It turns out the adults loved the apple juice just as much as the kids.

Decor and Activities: This was the most fun part for me. I love making the decor for the parties and this was no exception. I live in the south so there were no decorations to buy for this party and finding them online was hard.

^{** Disclaimer: You cannot sell trademarked logos without a license. I used these for my own personal use **}

DECOR – One Year Banner: The Great One on a pennant banner || One Year in Pictures: I hung them on pucks. The pucks were glued to ***** and then strung on ribbon. You can use monthly pictures of just random pictures from your little one’s first year. || Concession Stand Sign: I made this, but you can also just buy one! It was hung over the food table. || Mini Pucks and Actual Pucks: These were purchased for this first year pictures but we used them for decor along with anything that we had around the house that was Bruins themed. This helped me save some of the budget for other things. || NOTE: Never be afraid to just add balloons and store bought basic colored decor (we can’t use balloons because someone at our party was allergic).

ACTIVITIES – Floor Hockey: This was just a simple fun game and it cost $25 and can be kept for years to come. I painted mine to match the team, but you can also find your teams hockey net already made up. || One Year Video: This was time consuming but every year I make the kids videos for their birthdays and this year I decided to include them in as something for party goers to do! || Blades Color Station: I printed out pictures of our teams mascot and glued them on a popsicle stick for the kids to color and take pictures with. You can find your teams mascot by googling.

Party Favors: I had such a hard time with this. I wanted something cool, but everything hockey related was really expensive, so I landed on this. It was another idea that I took from my friend Crystal’s blog. Super cute in my opinion and easy to prep! I did it all with my computer and some Oreos. If you’ve been around you know that I always use the same sign.

This was the most fun party. We had one of our favorite games playing on YouTube in the background too which made it an all around experience. Just like all of my party ideas, this can be as detailed or as simple as you want it to be. The goal (see what I did there) is to celebrate the life of your kiddo anyway.

What do you think this years party themes are going to be (I know for sure what my son’s will be and I’m almost sure what my daughter’s will be). The kids will be 2 and 5 this year!