As a mom, I find my children’s birthdays very emotional. It always make me think of it as “one year less I have with them.” Debbie Downer, I know…So I cope with this by making a pretty cake and throwing an awesome party! There are typically many DIY projects involved and we try to get the biggest bang for our buck so we aren’t spending lots of money on things we will only use once. For Noa’s first birthday we did a bumble bee theme! I tend to gravitate more toward muted colors so instead of bright yellow and white, I chose to go with a softer yellow, olive green, white, and gold.

Like I said, a lot of creative love went into this party. Lets start with the large wood honeycombs. My brother does amazing wood work. So months before the party I asked him if he could build us honeycomb shelves. We would use them for the party and then use them to freshen up our living room decor once we were done! Double win! How beautiful are these? And imagine them on a living room wall filled with small books and flowing plants. If you don’t have someone crafty in the woodworking department maybe use popsicle sticks and make small honeycomb segments to hang as a backdrop on the wall? Hot glue and box of popsicle sticks and you would be good to go!

Then there were balloons! What one year old doesn’t love balloons?! I purchased a DIY balloon garland for $20 and a few extra mylar balloons off Amazon. I watched a few YouTube videos to get an idea how to get started with the garland along with some advise from a few friends and it turned out to be much easier than I had anticipated. The hardest part was blowing them all up! If you are thinking of doing your own balloon garland I would recommend making sure it comes with a balloon strip. Its a clear plastic ribbon that has holes to place the balloons. It makes it super fast and easy, no struggling with tying ribbons and such. It was huge and made a big statement, especially for price I paid for it! I added in some greenery that I already had to accent it off a little more.

Now lets talk about the goodies! I always look for a cake that I can make myself – I browse Pinterest for ideas. And I absolutely use a cake mix from a box! I have a 6″ round cake pan that I use to make a little fun layered cake and then I typically make cupcakes that are much more simple to go with it. This smash cake was SO simple. It was 3 layers of white cake topped with cream cheese frosting and I piped the seams using a ziplock bag and then used a knife to spread it out. Then I topped it with a “One” topper that I purchased on Etsy, a bee hive candle, a few candy bees, and some fresh flowers! The flowers were from a local florist. So easy and pretty! The topper was a bit of a splurge. But I plan to sell it along with a other items to get some $ back. The lemon cupcakes were baked in a mini bundt cake pan and topped with an easy homemade glaze and candy bee to make them look like little bee hives.

Ok, now for what really stole the show. Those cookies! Now I realize most people don’t all have a sister-in-law that makes these for fun. But lucky for me, I do. I have no words for these, they are just so beautiful and delicious!

For something fun and extra, we made lemonade that kids could drink out of honey bear bottles with cute yellow and white straws. These were a hit! There weren’t many little kids there, but the bigger kids liked them too! Since it was COVID birthday party and children are not vaccinated yet, it also gave us a way to label their drinks. I made sure that there was a sharpie available and they could label the lid with their name.

A few other odds and ends that I feel like added to the whole vibe – The “Happy Bee Day” sign about her highchair was supposed to be for her highchair tray but I couldn’t figure out how to secure it and make it lay nicely. So I hung it behind her chair instead. This was something that I made. I traced hexagons on the yellow paper first, cut them out and glued them to the white paper, then I cut around them and wrote the letters and drew the bee with a sharpie. No need to get too fancy here. Then I strung it using some thin ribbon I had around the house. Noa’s outfit was the Rufflebutts long sleeve bubble romper with white knit tights underneath. Her shoes are Piper and Finn’s brown – T-strap soft soled Mary Janes. And her bow is a large white tule bow from Lou Lou and Company. So cute and perfect!

What kind of party is it without some good food? On our menu was pulled pork sandwiches, homemade macaroni and cheese, Cole slaw, beans and vegetables. And there you have it! People will be BUZZing about your party for days 😉