Oliver's First Birthday: A Circus Party!

As many of you already know, my little guy, Oliver, turned a whole ONE year old in June and we threw him a fun Circus-themed birthday party to celebrate him in style! I'm finally getting his birthday party post up, man, summer just keeps getting busier and busier (ya feel me!) So here is a look at his big day and some of the fun we had!  We had around 50 people come and help us celebrate him (!!) we are so very thankful to have such wonderful friends and family in our lives!

We decided to throw him a Circus Party as Oliver is just such a fun lovin' little dude! The colors were red, aqua blue, and yellow...classic Big Top colors!

With any Big Top Circus lots of stripes were in order!

And we had to have lots of circus-themed food too!  

Cotton candy? Check!  

Hot dogs? Check!

Fresh popped popcorn? Check!

Circus Peanuts? Check!

Animal Cracker?  Check and done!

Don't these foods just scream CIRCUS!

I bought sweet little striped favor bags in circus colors here on Etsy and filled them with animal crackers for the kids' goodie bags.  I made the stickers on my computer to match his invitations...I'll share those with you another day!

We also had a whole table of fun things to play with and also to add to the goodie bag take home fun...self-stick adhesive mustaches (bought here) for everyone (think Strong Man!), cute circus animal face masks (found in the Michaels' Dollar Spot), foam red clown noses (bought here), and giant clown sunglasses.  These were all a huge hit with everyone, adults and kids alike, I'm so glad I went a bit overboard with the decor!

 If you follow me on Instagram you saw Penelope getting a little pre-party cray-cray!

Here's a peek at the table...also included was a super delicious Strawberry Lemonade made with freshly picked strawberries...mmm, so good!

I had to have some red stripey straws...and toy circus animal decor too! ;-)

Here are the other two tables in our screened in porch.  Food...and more food!

I found these awesome and totally coordinating napkins at Ikea...did I ever tell you how much I loved Ikea?

We also offered an amazing Pulled Pork thanks to my awesome sister, Annie! Watermelon slices, coleslaw, macaroni, hotdogs served up in these fun insulated foil bags, chips, and cotton candy in treat cones (template found here).

I had another table set up with freshly popped popcorn...Yum!  I think the popcorn boxes totally made this area a huge hit, the kiddos LOVED them!

I bought store-bought cupcakes (and a smash cake for the little dude) and put them in fun striped cupcake holders.

We were having lots of little ones come to the party so we had a piñata and a bounce house for entertainment as they are always a blast.

I decided to create some cute candy bags for the kids to put their candy in after the piñata was smashed.  I used red striped favor bags and then stamped "Candy 'Stache" on them...get it....mustache = stash!?!?  Har Har!

Oliver just loved hitting the piñata with me! See how proud he looks! And that little round belly of his...gah, so cute!

Noah was the kid that ended up smashing all the candy out of the piñata. I can't believe I actually got a picture of that!

The kids went wild....

It took him a while but Oliver finally got into the actual "smash" part of the cake smash!

I'm so sad that my baby is now ONE, I mean where oh where did this past year go!!  Do y'all remember when he was born (click here to read about it)!  That teeny little 6 lb 10 oz baby is now one, ONE!

I also need to say thank you to all our friends and family, especially my momma and my sister and her husband who timed their travels to Chicago just to be a part of Oliver's party. We are so happy to have such loving people in our lives and to be a part of a his life and to be there for us as we navigate parenthood, cause dang it can be hard! We thank God everyday that He has given us such an amazing and awesome child to care for, he really is the best little boy we could ever ask for!

Thank you so much for stopping by today...I hope this post wasn't picture overkill!  I couldn't help it, this party was just so much fun to plan and there are so many good memories as I look back at all the pictures!

XOXO,