Nursery Rhyme -1yr- Memory Board

Nursery Rhyme Party: For my son's first birhtday I wanted to do something extra special. As a former teacher, I love nursery rhymes and he loves to be read to. I focused on "Hey, Diddle Diddle" and "Humpty Dumpty". 

I got the plates and napkins at the local party store.  They were actually intended for a baby shower but I just loved the colors(yellows, purples, greens, and blues) and decided I could make it work. I used the characters on the plates for inspiration.  I drew enlarged pictures of the dish, spoon and stars and painted them with craft paint to display, and also painted a big sign that read "Happy Birthday___" I bought lots of balloons in the above colors and used a light blue table cloth and purple accents(cups, extra plates, etc.)

For games I painted a big cow(without a tail) that matched the plate design and we played pin the tail on the cow.  I used a very large balloon and made a Humpty Dumpty pinata from newspaper strips and painted it with craft paint again matching the colors and designs from the plates.  I filled it with candy and goodies.  It was a big "hit".   

The Humpty Dumpty cake was the most fun of all.  I started with a cream cheese pound cake recipe and used a tube pan. Turning it upside down I iced it white, then with a flat icing tip I went around it and made red bricks ( you could also use grey icing and make it look like stones).The wall was covered in vines of icing ivy.  I then cooked a regular box cake in my "Pampered Chef" small batter bowl and placed that cake upside down on the "brick wall". I then iced it to look like the Humpty Dumpty matching the plates and pinata. I decorated one cupcake and put it on his head for a  hat.

For my son's "smash" cake. I used a small pyrex mixing bowl and baked a small amount of batter.  When turned upside down it looked like the top of the moon(iced white).  I cut out the picture of the cow from one of the large plates, attached it to a skewer and stuck it in the cake to appear as if the cow were jumping over the moon. 

Party gifts were plastic cups filled with little $store prizes. I also purchased little candy bars and bubble jars and personalized the wrappers on my computer.  _____ was dressed in a little suit with "Hey, Diddle Diddle" characters on it and his bib was adorned with Humpty himself.  I got pictures of ___ with each of his guests. 

I also made a memory board.  I used a piece of poster board and covered it with pictures of ___ throughout his first year of life - they grow so quickly! Most of these pictures included him with those attending the party.  We didn't go over board with the no. of guests- just a few close friends and family.  We've got plenty of time for bigger parties in the future.  This was the most fun and I'm already working on his next Birthday adventure.