Atlas is ONE: Tropical Plant First Birthday Party

Man, has time flown by or what! It’s seems like just yesterday we were in the hospital waiting for his arrival (read our birth story HERE). And now he’s basically a toddler! He isn’t walking yet, but he’s definitely crawling and loves to say “dada”, “good job”, and “all done”. He’s such a sweetheart and we’re loving this fun phase of his life!

This past weekend we celebrated his birthday with our friends and family. His birthday theme initially started out as a safari theme (the invites were definitely safari themed, lol), but then I quickly realized how much work planning a party is and felt like I wanted to go for a more minimal party. We ended up with a tropical plant first birthday party theme that was the perfect amount of decor for us!

Related: 15 Beach Essentials For Baby (And Mom)

Tropical Plant First Birthday Party

The decor

I wanted to keep the decor as simple as possible, mostly because of budget and energy. I’m not one to go all out on decor, so this is what worked best for my sanity (haha)!

The only “real” decor we had was a balloon garland that we made (here’s how to make a balloon garland – it’s easier than you might think!). All you need are white balloons, a few small gold balloons, and some string! We filled in the garland with faux palm leaves, and it was exactly what we needed.

We hung a white sheet on our shed in the backyard, added the garland over it in an “L” shape, added a “One” balloon, and placed his high chair in the middle of it. We framed his high chair with a mix of real and faux plants that we either had on hand or had borrowed from friends. This was honestly our favorite (and pretty much only) decor!

We also added in some faux greenery near the drink stations and around the food, but more on that later. 😉

For our gifts to our guests (as a thank you for coming), we gave away these live succulents that we ordered off of Amazon! I was pleasantly surprised that they actually arrived in good condition. Not one of them was broken! Our guests loved them.

The food

Now for the BEST part!

Our cake was from our friends over at Sugar & Almonds (seriously our favorite bakery). Atlas’ smash cake was a gluten-free box cake from Simple Mills that was actually SO delicious! He didn’t eat that much of it during the party (mostly because I took it away after a few bites and when I saw how much he would have eaten – he loved it a little too much, you know? 😂), so we ended up eating a lot of it. So yummy!

We also served:

• Kolaches
• Mini Quiche
• A DIY yogurt parfait bar with fresh fruit and granola
• Small pastries
• Mini muffins
• Small chicken salad and pb&j sandwiches

For drinks, we had:

• A make your own latte station using our Nespresso machine, the milk frother, and a simple setup with milk and sugar available for our guests
• A sparkling OJ bar with fresh OJ and bottles of Topo Chico.

The latte station was a bit of a mess since not everyone knew how to use our Nespresso, but it made for fun memories and conversation topics. Nothing like bonding over the frother being overfilled and spilling milk all over the counter! Haha. The mess was so worth it, in my opinion!

Since the party was in the middle of the summer heat, we had our party indoor/outdoor. We had a bounce house and chairs in the backyard, but also made space and had chairs for guests to hang out in the dining room/living room. Our house was built in 1925 (see photos of our house HERE), so having food, places to sit, and things to do in different rooms helped keep traffic flowing through our home.

Atlas had a great time at his party and ultimately we just feel so blessed to be his parents! We’re so grateful for our friends and family who came over and celebrated with us. Here’s to being ONE, baby boy!