Beach Party 1yr - Cake & Toppings Bar

We had a beach party for our daughter's first birthday party. 

INVITATIONS:  I went to the scrapbook store and purchased beach theme stickers.  Using Kids font on Word, I printed the invitations on Tropical Blue card stock and added the stickers.  The invitation read: Jillian's Backyard Beach Party   

DECORATIONS:  I hung a shower curtain with a Tropical scene over our garage door and placed shells over the nails so that they could not be seen.  Next to the door is our gate entrance and I placed two tiki torches.  I covered the food table with a blue plastic table clothe and instead of setting all the food flat, I made levels to place the food on.  From the tallest level on one side, I layed a fishing net and placed shells and starfish so that they would hang in between the dishes of food and down to the ground.  I purchased grass table skirts for both the food and gift tables.  I also bought dishes in shades of blue and seagrass weave baskets to lay sandwiches in.  The food plates, napkins and utensils were blue and the napkins and cups had Hawaiian girls with grass skirts.  We set 3 canopies up for the eating tables and hung paper lanterns from them.  On the eating tables I also used the blue plastic table clothes and as center pieces I placed sand with tea light candles and seashells half buried as you would find on the beach.  Of course we had background beach music.

FOOD:  We had a beach picnic with a six-foot Subway sandwich, veggies & dip, Fruit & dip, meatballs and cheeses (with toothpicks that had pineapples, parakeets and some other fruit).  For dessert I made mini bundt cakes in the flavors of coconut, chocolate and chocolate chip and had a toppings bar which included shredded coconut, chocolate chips, strawberries, carmal and chocolate syrup, nuts and whipped topping.  I did order our daughter her own personal cake in an beach theme and we added goldfish crackers around the edge.  I purchased a snowcone maker and everyone enjoyed those with a little tropical umbrella in their glass.

ACTIVITIES:  Everyone who came got a Lei to wear for the entire party and take home as a party favor.  For the kids' activities we set up a sand box, 3 different size pools and a slip-n-slide.  With the way kids love water, we did not need any organized games because they had fun swimming and entertained the adults as well as we all set "poolside". As party favors each child received a bucket with sand and beach toys in them.

THE END: Everyone had a great time and with her second birthday in a few months, I have had several ask what we would be doing this year because they had so much fun they can't wait for what is next...I'm thinking everyone is coming to a circus and they will all get to wear red noses instead of leis!  I'll let you know what we do!