luisa & douglas

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How to Throw A First Birthday Party With Claris The Mouse

Oh we are so excited to share Annabelle’s first birthday party on our blog today! Annabelle LOVES all the Claris the Mouse books which is exactly why we knew her first birthday party theme was going to be CLARIS !

“Ooh La La – Annabelle is One”

But let’s be honest. It is so difficult to plan a first birthday party for our babies! That is why we want to share 10 Tips on How to Plan your little one’s First Birthday Party!!!! Here is what we did!

Hire a photographer: There are so many milestones in our lives but with kids they seem to come & go faster than we’d ever wish for! For us we try to freeze time and capture all memories that we can. While you can of course take a few pics yourself with either your iPhone or even a professional camera, we highly recommend hiring a photographer that can take care of all the details and moments happening throughout your celebration. That way you can 100% focus on your little one, your family, your guests and most importantly the time together!!!

***We hired Jamie from Poppy & Belle Photography and she is simply AMAZING!!!!***
Pick a theme: Pick something that your little one LOVES and make it the theme of the party!

***We chose Claris the Mouse, but it could be literally anything (ie. Disney princesses, the hungry caterpillar, ballerina, mermaids, unicorns, etc)***

Make a guest list: Decide how many people you want to invite! Annabelle is super shy and doesn’t feel super comfortable in a big crowd, which is why we chose to have a super small group for her birthday. When she gets older and may enjoy having more people and kids over, we are happy to expand the number of guests for her 🙂
Choose a date & time: Depending on your little one’s age and sleep schedule, choose the time of the party wisely. Don’t forget that your baby might get overwhelmed and worn out quicker than usual when there is a lot going on (ie. a birthday celebration), so they might get tired for their afternoon nap earlier than expected!

***Annabelle still takes two naps and eats lunch around 11 AM. With a full tummy, we knew that she’d be in a happy mood for ~2-3 hours after lunch, so we scheduled the party from 12 – 2:00 PM***

***We sent out our invites ~8 weeks prior to the party and choose to send them online (for FREE) through paperless post***
Choose decorations: We made an inspiration board with powerpoint and collected links in our web browser to save anything Claris and Paris-related. We then created a budget and choose which decor we really wanted for her celebration to make the Claris birthday party theme a dream come true. We wanted a big balloon arch, helium-filled Claris balloons, Claris-stickers for water and champagne bottles (Zazzle), Claris plates + drinking cups, Paris-themed straws, centerpieces (ie. gold Ferris wheel cupcake stand, gold eiffeltower centerpiece), and lots of cute Paris-themed cupcake toppers. Find the whole Claris Party Decor set here.

Setup a table and cake & desserts: Even though our little ones may or may not really care for cake (yet), we wanted to get a super fun cake and of course a super dreamy table scape.

The Table: We setup a table for everyone, added Claris plates, napkins, cups, gold silverware, Eiffel-tower straws, and Claris helium-filled balloons on each chair.
The Cake: We got some inspiration online and send a few pics back & forth with our favorite baker Sugar Bee Sweets (@sugarbeesweets) and then ordered the cake for the party.
The Cookies: In addition, we placed an order for Claris-themed sugar cookies with Jessica’s Bake Shop (@loveatfirstcookie).
The Cupcakes: We made some homemade confetti cupcakes with pink icing. We setup a table for everyone and had the cake showcased by the balloon arch!

Make a backdrop for photos: For us photos are super important! We loved the idea of having a BIG BALLOON arch as our backdrop for the cake but also for any photos of Annabelle, our family, and our small group of guests. We’d definitely recommend to buy a fun balloon arch kit from Etsy and an electrical balloon pump. With both you’ll be able to quickly & easily put together your own balloon arch in no time! In addition to the arch, we got some fun, personalized wall stickers saying “Ooh La La” and “Annabelle“.

Pick an outfit: We love all natural, light color palettes and tried to stay within the entire color theme. For Annabelle we chose the cutest white tulle dress from Popatu, I wore a blush gown from Needle & Thread, and Douglas some cream pants and a white button down.

Party Favors: Since we knew we’d have more adults vs. kids at Annabelle’s first birthday party, we chose to have adult party favors: Claris-themed rose bubbly and the sugar cookies! If you are planning to have kids at the party you can get some fun boxes or bags with stickers, bubbles, ring pops, plastic Eiffel tower, or even cute little Eiffel Tower teether for little ones.

Food & Drinks: To stick with our Parisian tea part theme, we chose to serve little brunch snacks that both kids and adults could eat:
- Kid’s tea party sandwiches: Cream cheese + cucumber, ham and cheese, and avocado.
- Drinks: We made a pink punch with orange sherbert (1 quart), pineapple juice (1 quart can), and ginger ale (1-2x 2L bottles). We also had water bottles with Claris-stickers. You could also offer flavored iced teas like mango or raspberry iced tea.