A Sunshine Birthday Party for Asa: Part I

Well, as many of you know, I had been planning a sunshine birthday party for our son, Asa, and I am happy to say it went off without a hitch! I feel like I have taken forever to post about it but with leaving my job to stay at home, changing computers, and the busy life of being a mom, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Alas, I am finally catching up with life again and am happy to share some of the joy we shared that day.
We decided to have his birthday on the last Saturday in September which turned out to be one of those warm, autumn days that feel like summer. My parents had come over the night before to help with a bit of cleaning, cooking, and decorating- it would have been much harder without their help. We tried to get as much set up the night before so that all we had left were a few final preparations.
You might remember from this post that I wanted to host his birthday party on a tight budget- around $75. I think after all was said and done I was a little closer to $100, but was overall happy with the money spent. We opted to not buy Asa an actual gift for his birthday because we felt that the party covered that (and of course all of the gifts that our friends and family so graciously gave him were more than enough for him). I scrounged around at the dollar store, hobby lobby clearance, and my own crafting supplies for his decorations, and of course, utilized my husband's graphic design skills a bit, too. Check out how it all came together below!

The "Happy Birthday" banner was made using twine, paper from an old book, a yellow scrap of paper, and a large piece of glitter paper and was super easy to make. I used a whole sheet of book paper for each banner piece, cut out the letters after I drew them onto the glitter paper (I just eyeballed their shape), then hot glued everything together- including each banner piece on to the twine! It was done in about 15 minutes and I think it added a little extra something to the room. This banner let you know it was time to party for this kid's birthday. The other banners were made the same way except I used ribbon instead of twine and simply cut the book paper into triangles.

Rather than buying poms to hang, I bought some colored tissue paper at the dollar store and whipped a few up with scissors and floral wire. I learned how to do this a few years back for a friend's bridal shower that I hosted but you can find a similar tutorial here. Again, this was another decor item that is quick and easy but makes a huge impact, especially when you are short on time and money.

We ended up with an extra print out of the sun and clouds that Josh designed for Asa's party and I had a quick inspiration that morning of what to do with it. We ended up leaving it out on the table for the party attendees to sign and leave a note on with hopes to do the same each year on his birthday. If I keep my ducks in order each year, I should be able to put them in a scrapbook as a keepsake for Asa to have as he gets older. Kind of like a birthday party guest book!

The drinks of the day were lemon water, lemonade, and coffee. Simple and sweet but also refreshing on that hot day. The solo cups we used were super fun because once you pulled off the tab there was an area where you could carve your name into it! Perfect for any situation where you might set your drink down but want to find it again. They also looked a bit like chalkboards once the name was on it....and who doesn't love a nice chalkboard detail these days.
Asa did have his own smash cake (more on that in a second and in part II), but I wanted something else for the guests to nibble on for dessert. In the spirit of autumn, I couldn't help but whip up my favorite pumpkin muffin recipe. I hope they were a hit. I know I ate about three of them that day!

I can't help but smile when I look back on Asa's smash cake. I think it turned out to be so cute! Since I knew that he would literally be smashing it, I didn't want to spend too much time or money on it. I ended up making an angel food cake in a rectangle plan, carved it into two squares for layers, and then used cool whip as the frosting. Asa doesn't eat a lot of processed sugar (rarely), but I thought that at least these options were a bit lighter than traditional cake and icing (maybe also easier to smash?).
For the frosting design, I started frosting the bottom with the cool whip as is, then added a few drops of yellow food coloring and worked by way up to finish with a circle on the top (circle = sun = sunshine theme) of a more intense yellow. For the toppers, I cut out and glued the sun and clouds Josh made onto kabob sticks. I felt those added a whimsical touch :).
Late the night before the party, I did have a panic moment when I realized that I didn't have anything planned to put the cake on. As I poked around in the basement, I came across a super cute gift bag that Asa had received an early birthday present in and decided to use that somehow. I ended up gluing it to a square piece of leftover cardboard and you wouldn't have known it was ever a gift bag!

The biggest chunk of preparation went into the food but I think that the "diy tacos" were a great choice because a lot of the prep could be done beforehand. My mom and I chopped lots of veggies for the toppings and cooked the meat the night before and the morning of the party we arranged the food, made a few dips, and turn on the crock-pot. The only downer was that I somehow bought WAY TOO MANY tortillas. It is safe to say that we are still eating those...even now (but luckily they did well in the freezer).

While the decorating and preparation was very fun, the best part of the day is yet to come...the celebration we had of this guy! Stick around for part II tomorrow for the party festivities. :)