The decor and menu were fun challenges, but I think we pulled it off pretty well.
I made his monster birthday cake and smash cake with just a basic yellow cake mix and cream cheese frosting. I tried my first real attempt with fondant, and it went well for what it was meant for.
We made up some batches of Kool-Aid popcorn, some Monster Cookie Dough dip, some monster themed cake balls, and with the extra cake batter, I made mini muffins that I added chocolate chip eye balls with frosting mouths.
We also made some Monster-eyed snack cups with various goldfish flavors.
And the munchies table was full of silly monster eyes as well, including our monster face deli sandwiches. I went with tomatoes and radishes instead of olives, because I think olives are gross!
We printed out each of his monthly photos from throughout the year, and included a newborn picture to make this fun little decoration. It only create a slight obstacle to climb under when moving from room to room, but it didn't matter that much since we played outside for so long!
And don't forget our festive drink markers! They also doubled as monster hunting bracelets!
We started the party by creating our own monster masks.
The kids were given the rules and informed that only those wearing a monster mask could see the monsters that were hiding in the back yard (Easter eggs with monster faces)! Each child had an assigned color with a matching bucket for the hunt!
The cutest monster wanted nothing to do with his mask!
The kids had a great time searching for their monsters!
Thank God for beautiful weather!
We made some photo cut-out props for some silly photos. I altered the original pattern to fit an actual head, since the foam board we bought (for $2.50 a sheet) was smaller than the original pattern intended.
Once the photos were done, we had a good old fashioned game of bean bag monster toss with the same boards. Pap was a great sport and held the boards for us!
Even the smallest participants wanted to get in on the action!
I stitched together some monsters out of felt, and filled them with a little bit of popcorn kernels and the rest with traditional polyester filling.
We spent most of the rest of the afternoon hanging out and playing in the back yard with Micah's new swing set.
We topped off the event with some gift opening, with one very sleepy little boy!
And the grand finale, the cake smash! We forgot to put his hat on, but that didn't stop him from attacking his cake!
It was a great time, and we're so glad that all of Micah's (great)grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins were able to celebrate his first birthday with him!
