Little Man Party -1yr- Little Man Art Station

My nickname for my son is Mr. Man so we decided to go with a Little Man theme for his first birthday party- mustaches, bow ties, neckties, etc.    

INVITATIONS: I made the invitations on my computer and had them printed from a photo department. It was a 4x6 rectangle with a picture of my son in his birthday outfit (a onesie with suspenders and a navy tie with a lime green one sewn on and his name monogrammed under the tie.) The picture was on an argyle background on one half of the invitation. The other half was white with the party information in a vintage typewriter font in navy and lime green. The invitation said A little cake and a lot of fun. Our Little Man Gavin is turning one followed by the party information and with a line at the very bottom saying If you can, wear a crazy tie to celebrate our little man.    

DECORATIONS: The color scheme was mainly navy and lime green. I found the perfect scrapbook paper pack using those colors with argyle, chevron, hounds tooth, plaid, and other vintage looking patterns that were great for making tie decorations.  I cut necktie shapes out of the scrapbook paper and strung them together with navy ribbon to make two banners, one  said Happy 1st Birthday Gavin and was hung above the dessert table. The other said Little Man and was hung on the fireplace. I also cut rectangle frames out of the scrapbook paper to make a time line banner with pictures of Gavin from each month. The time line was hung above the food table. On the food and dessert table, I made labels for each dish. The labels were made to look like a dress shirt with a tie sticker and a name tag that said the name of each dish. I also cut smaller neck ties out of the scrapbook paper and attached them to root beer bottles to make it look like the bottles were wearing the ties.    

FOOD: The food table was covered with a blue cloth and the plates were lime green with a blue tie and black mustache on them. We served Man’s Favorite Food- Pizza, (several varieties of pizza served on large blue and green platters set at different heights using scrapbook paper covered coffee cans) Bow Tie Pasta, Little Man Veggie Salad- (salad with baby corn, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, and tiny mushrooms), Bread Stick Neckties, and spinach artichoke dip.   

DESSERT: The dessert table was covered with a lime green cloth and the plates matched the dinner plates but in opposite colors (blue with a lime green tie on them.) In the center, we placed a tiered cupcake stand with red velvet cupcakes and salted caramel cupcakes. The top tier had Gavin’s blue smash cake. The cupcakes had mustache and tie cupcake picks and the cake had a larger pick that said Happy Birthday Gavin. We also served Cookies and Milk Mustaches (chocolate chip cookies and tiny milkshakes), Caramel Cones (caramel popcorn in lime green paper cones), Mustache Pops (made by melting chocolate in mustache shaped lollipop molds), and sugar cookies shaped like ties and mustaches.  

DRINK STATION: We had a large glass drink dispenser with Arnold Palmers (lemonade mixed with ice tea) and placed blue cups nearby with straws that had a mustache attached to them so that when you took a drink, it looked like you had a mustache. We also placed the above-mentioned root beers here with mustache straws attached to them as well.    

ACTIVITIES: As the guests entered, I had a little sign displayed in a frame that said Welcome to Gavin’s Party, we mustache you to sign his book and help your selves to the food and fun (The book was called Mr. Birthday). All of the frames used throughout the party were decorated with navy and lime green chevron ribbon. In the breakfast nook, we covered the table in blue butcher paper and had a sign that said Create Your Own Little Man in the center of a lazy susan wheel surrounded by blue and green miniature buckets filled with wiggly eyes, mustache stickers, tie stickers, glue sticks, crayons, and paper man cutouts. The sign directed the kids to make little paper men. They were very creative with their clothing choices and we even had some four-eyed men! Across from that table, we had a large photo of Gavin taped on the wall with a Stick the Tie on Gavin sign. The kids took turns trying to stick tie stickers on Gavin’s collar. Each child won a miniature Wooly Willy prize, which are those little plastic toys with a bald man picture inside and the magnetic hair that you can use a magnetic stick to put hair on his head and chin. The child who pinned the tie closest also won a pair of those pretend glasses with the funny nose attached. 

In the living room, we created a Little Man Town using large cardboard boxes. Each box was decorated with markers and printed pictures to look like different places around the town. We had Gavin’s Garage with large toy cars and a pretend tool set inside. There was a bistro with a play kitchen, tables, chairs, and dishes, Gavin’s Grocery with play food on shelves, a little shopping cart and basket, and a cash register, and a veterinary clinic with stuffed animals and play doctor kits. The kids spent the majority of the party crawling around this town. The highlight for the adults was the Mr. Man and Little Miss Photo Booth. We placed a camera on a tripod with the ten-second delay and had a table set up with the props (mustaches, eye glasses, lips, etc, on sticks to be held in front of their faces) and directions to press the button on the camera, then strike a pose. We had so much fun looking at all the pictures afterward and are planning to email the photos to the guests. We also had a mustache shaped piñata filled with candy and mustache stickers.   

FAVORS:  As the guests were leaving, they each got a lollipop with a paper mustache attached, having the same effect as the straws where it looked like they had a mustache when they sucked on the lollipops. I also made bow ties and hair bows out of lime green and navy chevron fabric that could be worn throughout the party and then taken home.  I had so much fun looking for and creating all the little details for the party. Our Little Man was afraid of his smash cake and piñata, but he loved the little town and photo booth!