I’m having a hard time accepting this reality, but Jackson is about to be a year old. How did that happen?

I may not be ready to deal with the fact that I’m about to have a toddler, but it’s happening whether I want it to or not. And I’ve been having people ask me what I plan on doing for his birthday party, so I figure it’s about time I get it planned.

Now, I won’t lie – I would love to do an awesome, Pinterest-worthy, absolutely perfect first birthday party complete with handmade decorations and professional photography. But that’s just not my reality – I don’t have time to do a ton of DIY for the party, and I don’t have the money to go crazy on a party that my kid won’t even remember. Mr. Garland and I debated whether or not we would even have a party for Jackson, and in the end we decided to go for it even if it’s just for us. It’s been a rough year adjusting to this new life, and I want to celebrate the fact that we made it!

When he’s old enough to tell me what he wants, I’m absolutely willing to go with a theme for his parties, but if I picked a theme based on his favorite things right now it would be a hitting-things-and-putting-stuff-int0-other-stuff theme, which really just isn’t that exciting. So, we picked a few colors (navy and gold), decided on a menu (breakfast, because it’s Jackson’s favorite part of the day), and started throwing together a quick and easy first birthday party!

We’re keeping things very simple and affordable this year, and I’m hoping it’ll also be cute. Here’s the inspiration I’ve gathered for his party so far.

Birthday-Party-Collage

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1. Invitations – The only thing we “splurged” on were the invitations – I didn’t really want to buy fill-in-the-blank ones that weren’t personalized, so we waited for a sale and snagged those cute ones for less than $20 total. To be honest we probably could have skipped the invitations altogether (I think we mailed out 8), but I couldn’t resist doing something special.

2. Decor – I want to use lots of balloons (they make a big impact for not much money)! I’m getting a large gold “1” and hopefully we can get some big 36″ balloons as well – we used a few as decoration for our wedding and we loved how they looked!

3. Book – I see this adorable Dr. Seuss birthday book all over Pinterest, along with the idea to bring it out at every birthday party to have the guests sign as your child grows. I’ve already ordered our copy, and I think it’s a fantastic idea. It’ll be such a fun keepsake to have as he gets older!

4. Garland – I absolutely love these tassel garlands but they’re so expensive to purchase pre-made! This is the only DIY project I’m really doing for the decorations, and this tutorial makes it look like it’ll be a breeze. I’m not usually very good at this sort of craft, though, so we’ll see how it turns out – I’m definitely giving it a shot!

5. Cake – I found this recipe when I was looking for healthy alternatives for a smash cake. I love that this cake has no added sugar and is a much healthier version of a regular cake. I haven’t decided if I’ll do the blueberry “1” or if I’ll actually put a candle on it, but we’ll be doing a healthy(ish) cake for him!

6. Streamers – I want to make sure to create a cute little backdrop for his high chair, since there will probably be a ton of photos taken with him in it. We’ll likely stick with just navy, gold, and white, and I haven’t decided exactly what we’ll do yet, but I know the high chair needs to be a focal point!

7. Waffle Bar – And finally, the part I’m most excited about…the food! We’re having a waffle bar with lots of fun toppings, along with scrambled eggs (one of Jackson’s favorite foods), fruit, and some sausage and bacon. I’ll also probably have some hot chocolate and maybe stuff for mimosas – brunch is always so much fun to plan for, and it’s a pretty easy thing to throw together, too!

So, that’s where I’m drawing my inspiration from for J’s party – I’ve got a couple of weeks left to get everything together, and I’m absolutely not allowing myself to stress at all. This is supposed to be a fun day, there’s no reason to get too worked up. I’m going to keep it as low-key as we can, and have as much fun as possible along the way!

What’s your approach to parties? Do you like to go all-out or keep it simple?