1st Birthday Party Planning - first steps

It's amazing how quickly these things arrive. We're already planning her first birthday party. These are a really big deal in Hawaii with many parents throwing a party that's bigger than their wedding. We're not going that route, but it's still important to me for the party to be well planned, fun, and cute. It's also important to us that we start the tradition of a non-Christmas theme so her birthday stays separate and special.

Really, we're throwing 2 parties. The first in Hawaii for family & friends there, and another, later, at home. I found some really nice printable themed party supplies from Paper and Cake. They supply you with pdfs of various things like invitations, cupcake wrappers, signs, and decorations. You can customize, print, cut, and assemble them as you need. I'm transforming the Under the Sea Baby Shower package into a First Birthday for Hawaii, admittedly only possible on the invitations since I have more advanced design software than most people.

This is the test of the favor box with Halloween candy for scale. It's perfect since her favorite toy is this stuffed octopus she drags around by the tentacles. I'm going to add her name and birthday to personalize it. The invitations and envelopes are done and mostly sent. We're still deciding the menu and children's favors. And almost everything still needs printing, cutting, scoring, folding, and gluing. Oh my.