"It's A Splash" Party

This past week, this little man of mine celebrated his

1st Birthday!

I can't even believe how fast time goes by!

(And to think in 10 weeks my next little one is going to be here -

can you say crazy busy mommy!)

Since his birthday is during the warm days of summer I thought it would be fun to have a "Splash" party to celebrate - not to mention, he La La Loves water!!

I didn't want to spend too much money but I wanted it to be awesome!

So I busted out the Cricut (thanks mom for letting me borrow yours!) and used the

George and Basic Shapes Cartridge for everything I made.

First up - Invites!

All I did was print out the invite on plain white paper using a font from Kevin and Amanda, -and now I can't remember what font I used, dang it. -

placed it in the Cricut, lined it up and cut it out.

I love the shape of it!

I think it gives it so much personality!

Then I back dropped it in blue, added a fun little sun and called it good!

Next Up - His Happy Birthday Banner!

Again, I just used stuff I had laying around the house.

I used the Cricut and cut out all the shapes and letters -

used sticky tabs to "glue" everything together -

hole punched some holes and tied all the letters together using coordinating ribbon.

Next Up: Cupcake Toppers.

Again, I used the Cricut and cut out everything.

Then I used pop dots to make the suns and balloons stand out a bit -

Glued them back to back to a toothpick and added them to my cupcakes.

I had this big fancy dream of piping the frosting on and making them

look all *spectacular* - but sometimes things just don't pan out.

oh -well, the kids loved them anyway!

Last Up - Goodie Bags!

Since it was a "splash" party and all outdoors -

I wrapped up sidewalk chalk and bubbles in cellophane

added a tag and called it good.

And once again - I used the cricut to cut out the tags and the suns.

I printed up the wording on my computer and cut those out with my cutter -

which is why the edges are a bit more rugged.

I could kick myself for not taking pictures of the rest of the decorations -

But I simply set up a table, with a yellow table cloth and used I used streamers and balloons

My favorite part was all the different frames I displayed with about 6 of his 1 year old pictures.

My next favorite part was - No Games!!

I set up a swimming pool, a slip n slide, water balloons and bubbles and let the kids go to town doing whatever they wished.  I wanted to be able to enjoy his party and not have to worry about trying to get 10 kids to play a game. It worked out perfectly and I am pretty sure the kids (and parents) had a blast playing in the water. I know my little guy did!

Then we had a BBQ dutch oven dinner with Fruit and Salad.

That was also a big hit - and so nice for me because I prepped everything beforehand and it cooked while I played and when it was done we served it up. Nice!!

Then of course - Cake Time!

The kids had cupcakes and the adults had a cake from Schmidts Pasty Cottage - YUM!

His little cake was nothing fancy because I knew it would end up like this...

Then we opened gifts and played the rest the night.

I would say the "splash" party was a total success!!

Neither Cricut or Schmidts paid me anything to mention them -

I just did it because I love it!