"Children's Books" Birthday Party

This was my first birthday party! I really wanted to do something fun for my oldest son when he turned one. We already had plenty of toys and because we lived in an apartment at the time, we didn't really have space for more. So we decided this would be a great time to build our home library! We invited everyone over for food and cake and asked that they bring a book as a gift.

If you like what you see and want to recreate this party in part or its entirety, go to my Party Packages page to find a list of all the links I used to create this super fun birthday party!

I created this invitation using Google Docs. Yup. That's it. It was before I knew what Canva was (and wow! was THAT a game changer!), but I'm happy with how it turned out. I just printed it out and cut it down the center before mailing them to all those we wanted to come celebrate with us!

We held the party outside and had guests come around the side of the house to a table. At the table, each guest was invited to sign my son's birthday book, crown themselves, and grab a game card. I found a cute message on Pinterest to go with the birthday book that asked people to leave a note or just sign their names so we knew who came to celebrate with us. I plan on doing this every year for his birthday and then giving it to him when he's big! The crowns were for the kids and came from the book "Where The Wild Things Are". 

Ok so let's talk about the game card. I really wanted to find a way to get all the kids involved and having fun so the parents could just sit back, eat, and enjoy chatting. I had this brilliant idea to create a game card with a list of all the games I had planned on it. I asked the oldest cousin to be in charge and run all the games (it made my life easier so I could keep hosting!). Once each game was played, each child got a sticker on their game cards. Once their cards were filled, they were able to grab a drawstring bag and fill it with a free book and bookmark! It was seriously so fun! It kept the kids busy and everyone else got to sit back and enjoy.

I had a blast creating all the games for the kids, but I think I had even more fun figuring out all the food! I picked some of my favorite children's books and found food that could go with them. I set up the books behind each of the foods and I think it turned out super cute! Plus, everyone was happy that we fed them, because let's be honest, good food makes a good party!

My sister-in-law is amazingly talented and created the most perfect cake for our theme! (@lunacakesco) It was absolutely delicious! She even created a little smash cake for our cute little one year old and he loved it! 

As a thank you to all those who came, I printed out these little tags and put them with a bag of Swedish Fish. It would definitely work with colorful goldfish, we just had already used those on our food table so I went with the candy instead.

This birthday party was seriously so fun to plan! We had the best time celebrating our son with all of our loved ones:)