Tanner's First Birthday Bash

"HAPPY BUGDAY TANNER"

We had Tanner's first birthday party on Tuesday and boy was it a buggy affair. At one point I counted 39 people at this party and we loved having every one of them there. We were so lucky because we got to celebrate with not only all of my siblings, my parents, Grams and other family that lives here, but a lot of my family from Arizona and California too.
All the cousins

We also had a bunch of friends from church and work. There were 12 kids total (including Tanner). It was so fun!
My BIG BOY

Tanner and his antennae

The party started at 7:00 pm. The weather Gods must have been smiling upon us because it has been in the upper 90's lately and the day of the party the high was only 88 degrees and that night it was in the upper 70's. Such a nice break from the heat! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! The party was outdoors so you can understand why I was so worried about the heat- especially with a bunch of kids. But the night was perfect and so we partied on.
Upon arrival everyone dawned a pair of buggy antennae. I think this is one of my favorite pictures. Isn't my Grams so adorable (and my sister is a babe!)But you gotta love the headgear!

We started by getting the kids into their seats and letting them play with their party favors. The favors were these bug boxes filled with plastic bugs, tweezers, bug nets, "Bug Bite" cookies, and bug bracelets. The kids had so much fun with their bugs.

Then everyone got their food and settled in to eat and chat.
After the kids finished their food and while the adults were eating- the kids got to go for a "Bug Hunt" and look for more bugs around the yard. I think they enjoyed that and they really enjoyed filling up their bug boxes.
Tanner enjoying his bug net

We had some family pictures taken too, since we couldn't resist the antennae shots.
My little bug family


My entire family

Then we had the kids all gather around while I helped Tanner open his presents. (THANK YOU TO EVERYONE!!!!)

We loved all of his presents.
Then we sang "Happy Birthday" to my big boy and he got to eat his cake.
Birthday boy and his cake

Watching him dig into his cake was hysterical. It was such a sensory experience for him. First he just poked the cake.

Then he grabbed a handful of it and crumbled it up.

After that he started shoveling handfuls into this mouth.
Yummy Cake

The end result being this...

Now onto the decorations. To say that I've been planning this party for a while would be an understatement. I don't know what is wrong with me, but I LOVE planning parties. From the food to the decorations- I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT PARTY PLANNING!
We had the party in our back yard. I used this sign to direct people to the party.

We lined the yard with Tiki torches which I had decorated with ribbons and sunflowers. We lit these later to keep the real bugs away-(I realize this is a little off theme- but I think everyone's bare arms and legs would thank me for this).

We had a kid table with individual place settings for the kids with their personal bug boxes marking their seat at the table.
Some of the kids at their table going through their boxes.

Then we had two round tables for the adults and other chairs around the yard. The centerpieces for the adult tables were these paper pinwheels I made and some balloons.


The food table was totally bugged out. I don't have individual pictures of each food, but you can kind of see the foods in this picture.

We had ant cupcakes on this cupcake stand I made using flower pots. Then we had "Mud Pies" made from crumbled oreos, gummy worms and chocolate pudding.

We had "mud covered bugs" which were really chocolate covered raisins and nuts. We had "ants on a log" which were raisins on celery with peanut butter. We had "Lady Bugs" which were quartered cherry tomatoes with olives on ritz crackers. There were "Buggy Friends" which were PB&J sandwiches cut out with bug cookie cutters. We also had "Caterpillars" made from grapes and toothpicks.And "Antennae" which were just pretzels. Then we had "Bug Juice" for the kids to drink and a Watermelon fountain for the adults.

Close up of the watermelon fountain

The centerpiece for the food table was the watering pitcher filled with cut out bugs and the number one. (I would have seriously killed for a cricut when I was making this because i cut each bug out by hand-YUCK)

The porch was decked out with bug nets draped across one corner and Chinese lanterns hanging across the front.


Plus balloons, the bugday banner and streamers.
The back porch after the party got started.


I really love how it all came together. It was a wonderful party and I'm grateful to all those who helped make it so special. I can hardly believe my little man is already a year old. Where has the time gone and what happened to my baby? He's looking more and more like a little boy everyday.
Sorry about all the pictures, but I couldn't choose which ones to post so I ended up posting most of them. Hope you enjoyed!