Oh Toodles! We did it.

Oh Toodles! We had a party and it was a total success. Granted my son will probably not remember the awesomeness that his mom created for him but I will. We all know first birthday parties are really for the memories and the moms to point out uh we made this!( where is the otter meme when you need it?)
If you don’t know how long I’ve been planning this party please refer back to a previous post about party planning. I would just like to say if you need a professional my services are not for sale that took way too much work and planning and everything than I even knew I had. I am a forever procrastinator like i turn in college essays and assignments at 11:59 and 12 seconds on sunday night.( the cut off is midnight!) But I planned this party out with the help of my family and friends. I made connections with local shops and business and when I accepted that I did not have time to make everything on my super awesome cricut I found someone to make my invites and souvenir items as well. But that is what we do best as moms we make a connection! We find that crazy weird thing our kids ask for with just a partial description told through watery eyes. We can tell just with a look or a cry what it is our babies need. We know that real life is so different from what we see on instagram yet we strive for perfection anyway. Good thing for me my family could care less and just came to have fun and support my little one.
But still I want to share all the people and businesses that helped make my little guy’s day super special.
So first off Ebony’s Invites… I literally can not say enough about her and what she does. I came to her 5 months ago with my idea for my son’s birthday and the items I wanted. She sent me mock up’s of everything, asked my opinion and gave me options before sending me the final results. Everything is digital now and I wanted something to hold and add to his baby book so I got actual invitations. She even provided the envelopes. I also got goodie bags and water bottle labels printed up because duh party favors. If you want to check her out she has a shop and an instagram page.
https://www.instagram.com/ebonysinvites/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/EbonysInvites

Second item on my list was a custom cake. I recently learned my favorite cakes from a local grocery store aren’t as fresh and amazing as I thought. But really when my daughter turned 1 she was super into bubble guppies and no one I mean no one had one I could order. I ended up getting the grocery store to just make me a cake with the right colors and buying cupcake toppers on an etsy shop to add on later. Now my son’s theme was mickey mouse clubhouse I’m sure many places would have had it but custom we went. I found this local shop through some mutual friends and facebook buzz. CrumCoat is the name and again I came to her months in advance asking for a cake and smash cake for my little mans big day. She more than delivered. The cake was amazing in looks and taste. It was covered in fondant apparently everyone dislikes fondant except kids but she coating it with icing underneath and between the layers so the cake still had lots of yummy goodness. Now she totally booked out for the month of October but don’t worry Jacksonville peeps this month is almost over! If you are local please check her out. The price was reasonable and the smash cake was included.
https://www.instagram.com/juscrumcoat/

The third item I needed was some extra treats and goodies. I am not sure when we stopped having ice cream at parties but as I contemplating it for my son’s party I decided extra sweets would be better than ice cream mess everywhere. Now this lovely woman I found through mutual friends and attending other baby showers and birthday parties. Her treats looked so good and tasted amazing so I just had to add her to my son’s party line up. She made mickey mouse shaped cake pops and I made homemade rice krispy treats covered in chocolate. Guess which ones I served? Yup cake pops baby!!! I let my brother’s eat the mickey treats and gave the cake pops to the guest. You can find her other works on instagram as well.
https://www.instagram.com/luxe_berries/

The last few items I needed are local and well one is just my own… unless you live her I may be able to convince her to help out. As you know I spent a lot of time on pinterest researching party ideas and looks for my little guy and I decided simple was best. There is a sweet lady who works with my mother who has created masterpiece decorations out of simple items like a shower rod and a hula hoop. This time all I asked for was some labels for the tables to signify food items. She over delivered as usual. She created Mickey Mouse out of balloons and a block stand of my son’s name. I am so thankful for finding someone like her. The other item(s) was a bounce house just the right size for my little guy. I order the jumper, tables, and chairs from http://www.spacewalkofjacksonville.com/ but I mean jumpers can be found anywhere just google search your area 🙂

We had a ball! I loved getting everything set up and organized and the smile on my little guys face when he jumped and played with all his new toys. This birthday was one for the books and I am so glad I took the time to plan everything out. By planning I not only was able to stress less about last minute things but also able to pay for the party in steps instead of all at once and feel like I overdid it. Now to planning my daughters big 5 birthday party because apparently going to Disney this year was not a party….Sibling Rivalry has begun guys… wish me luck.
Please check out all these shops and use them if you need them I know a few of these I will be using again in 5 months time. Also no sorry we spent too much time having fun to take super professional posed pictures so enjoy our awkwardness.