Planning a Little Pumpkin 1st Birthday Party!

My sweet nephew, Caden Thomas, is turning one within a day or two of Halloween so it seemed natural to do a "Little Pumpkin" theme for his party.  My siser in law has asked me to help her with the planning of this very special event. 

Here is what I have come up with so far.....

Invitation:

We have two options....paper vs internet....small fee vs free....hmmmmm

Etsy has great DIY printable invitations from msabarbara.  For $8 she will customize this adorable invitation and you have it printed yourself.

Adorable!!

Option #2 is convenient and FREE, but some people may not feel it is quite as proper to do--Personally, I think it is smart and in the age of Facebook--it totally makes sense.  This option is to send an invitation via internet from evite.

We can add "Our Little Pumpkin is turning" to the top of this evite to get in the theme of the party.  There are no pictures of pumpkins, but the colors go with our theme, so I think it would work great.

The Cake:

I have actually never done a pumpkin-shaped cake before, let alone stacked pumpkins..so I am realy excited about this cake--I LOVE a challenge and doing something new!!  Here is the look I am going for

I found this cake design on cake central  which is my favorite place for cake inspiration.  I only hope I can do this justice--and my brother and sis-n-law do not really like fondant, so I am going to try to do this one with buttercream only--we'll see how it goes!

The treats!

I found these fantastic printable snack boxes here.

These little freebies will be perfect for filling up with caramel popcorn! These can be eaten at the party or taken home as a party favor....gotta love that!

Of course we have to have cake balls!  I am going to use an easy and fantastic pumpkin spice cake recipe to make these adorable cake balls found here.

Spice Cake recipe:  1 box of spice cake + 1 can of pumpkin = fantastic pumpkin spice cake!

Of course we have to have some great toppers for our cake balls.

You can find some adorable cupcake toppers on etsy....like these.

Again, for $8 thatsawrap2 will customize these babies and we can print them out ourselves.

Option #2--I decided to make my own using Word--and I think they turned out pretty darn cute.  What do you think??

The plan is to punch them out with my handy dandy circle punch and back them with a coordinating scrapbook papers--maybe including some polka dots, some gingham, and maybe a plaid or two.

Making cupcake toppers on Word is not the easiest thing in the world, but once you figure it out, it is actually pretty easy to do.

 

Of course, we must have some caramel apples like the ones seen here.

 

Finally, we have to have some candy corn!

Real Food....

So, my sis-n-law informed me today that the party needs to include a meal because they are moving the time of the party from 2:00 to 11:00 so that we have plenty of time to prepare for trick-or-treating that evening.

My mind went instantly to mini-pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans, and corn on the cob.

After doing a little research, I found this post on the "Catch my Party" blog.  It's like these people read my mind! The decor is not quite what I am looking for, but I am in love with the

baked beans

and the cole slaw!

For drinks,  I would love to have mason jars with orange striped paper straws....similar to this.....



Decorations....

You will have to check back in to see what decorations we end up using...because of the pumpkin theme the options are just too numerous and since this is family, I will be using several objects from my own home.  I can say that I do want to try these...



These little cuties are made with scrap fabric and a roll of toilet paper!!  What a great way to add some pattern to our tablescape!!

So, that is what I have so far. Make sure to check back in a couple of weeks to see pictures of the actual party.  I think it is going to turn out great, yet still be affordable!!

Happy Fall to All!!