Mason Turned ONE!

Well, that time has come. I am now (have been for a few weeks) a mother to a one year old. That's right... 12 months I have been a mom. One whooooole year. And I can't believe it. They warn you that time fly's by, but I mean, it REALLY has flown by. His party turned out PERFECT, but not without a little complication. My poor, sweet Mason spent the night before his birthday party in the Emergency Room with Pneumonia and a fever of 103. Luckily, we were able to go home after a five hour stay with antibiotics in his system, a Z-pack subscription, and super sleepy eyes. The doctor told us as long as he didn't have a fever  the next day, he was able to go to his party. Low and behold, he woke up with a body temp. of 99 the next morning and we were on our way with the birthday boy in hand. Here are some pictures, links and lists to ALL the Etsy shops that I was so lucky to participate with and buy from, and all of the fun things and memories that took place. Happy reading!

The very first DIY project that we took on for this birthday was the invitations. I feel like the invitations really set the mood for the whole party so I knew exactly how I wanted them. I made the ears and the circles with a Cricut (by the way, one of the coolest inventions ever!), typed up the info and pasted it onto the main body circle, then glued on the yellow buttons! Now, so have you know, yellow buttons (in bulk) are extremely hard to find so I totally lucked out when I found some good quality and reasonably priced packages of yellow buttons from the Etsy shop House of Blair. One other little complication that I ran into: the invites didn't fit normal size envelopes, or any store bought sized envelopes for that matter. Which then lead me to the shop CutCardStock. They shipped me my 6.5X6.5 inch square envelopes within four days and they fit perfectly. 

The black portion slid down into the red and fit great. I just pushed it up to show the details for a guest. 

One of the first purchases we made for this party was our Mickey and Minnie Mouse ears! I ordered these off of the Etsy shop FavorsAndCrafts. They have so many other cute things in their shop it was so hard to only get the ears! They fit all of our multi-sized heads perfectly and were SO comfy. We wore them for almost 6 hours and never once realized they were there. Mason didn't even care (and he's the picky one!) He didn't try to take them off and he was the cutest little mouse. 

Next, I knew we wanted to give away a unique party favor so we started brainstorming. I had exactly 60 glass bottles left over from my baby shower so I figured we'd start there. After much deliberation I decided we'd fill up the bottles with Red, Yellow, and Black M&M's and top it off with some chocolate chips. My dad helped us out big time with this by going to the official M&M store in Las Vegas and getting us the 13 pounds of M&M's that we needed to fill all the bottles. Next was to figure out how to put the finishing touch on them. After searching Etsy for personalized labels, I came across the adorable shop Snuggly Monkey. For a super cheap price I was able to order 80 labels that fit the bottles perfectly and I was able to pick out the text. 

After some of the bigger portions were out of the way I focused on Garrett and mine's outfits. (What's a party if the parents don't match the theme and play along, right?!) SO being the bargain shopper that I am, I waited for two simple V-neck shirts at Target to go on sale and bought them instantly. On those white shirts, from the oh-so-wonderful shop Owl Little Family. I bought two iron on decals that say "Mom of the Birthday Boy" (for my shirt) and "Dad of the Birthday Boy" (for Garrett's shirt). They turned out awesome and we received so many compliments. They really matched well with our Mickey and Minnie ears. She goes above and beyond contact her at: owllittlefamily@gmail.com 

Now this we didn't buy. My super artistic husband did this ALL ON HIS OWN. I literally gave him a picture and bought the wood, and he ran with it. No stencil, all free hand, and it couldn't have turned out better. It was such a hit at the party and everybody loved getting their own Mickey picture! 

Since we had all our outfits in order, it was time to shop around for Mason. It took us at least a solid week to go back and forth between two outfits that we liked, but we finally settled on a winner. We ended up ordering his birthday boy shift from SWDdesigns and fell absolutely in love with it. It's GREAT quality, all handmade, and arrived in time (which is always a plus). He was comfy all day and it added so much cuteness to the whole party theme. We bundled the shirt with his Mickey ears and khaki shorts because it was a lovely 80 degrees for his poolside February birthday. (Yay, AZ!)

Another DIY project that I took on was making his One Year board. Now, as most of you know I have been notorious for the "chalkboard" through every week of pregnancy of every month of Mason's life, so this was a must-do project for me. (Check out all of our chalkboard progress by clicking HERE and then clicking HERE!) 

The very last thing we purchased off of Etsy was his big birthday present. We recently turned our spare bedroom into Mason's very own play room and this Teepee really brings the room to life! We ordered from the shop Play TeePee and have never been more pleased with a gift. This shop can do just about any color you want, and has the choice between a smaller and a larger size. She worked so well with us to make it a custom order and we received it in less 7 business days! The teepee itself is super sturdy, plenty of room, sides that can open and close with a simple tie and the fabric is fabulous. This picture doesn't really do it justice but for now it will have to do:

The DIY projects are not over my friends! The next thing tackled was high High-Chair banner. I (with my darling husband's help) made this by hand for less than 20$ from our local Hobby Lobby! Don't forget to use your 40% off printable Hobby Lobby Coupon! Or just pull it up on your phone and show the cashier! All it took was some yards of fabric, a piece of burlap, and a string for tying and BOOM! a super cute decoration that is now hanging up in his play room as we speak. :) 

I know, I know- this is the longest post of my life. I wanted to make sure all of our beautiful shops got the credit they deserved and I've had so many inbox questions about this or that so I figured I'd just answer them all (plus some) in one giant blog post. Thanks for reading this lengthy post, I'll finish up with some pictures! All of the food (other than the sheet cake and smash cake) was made by the lovely Dianna Fielding. I showed her my ideas, we wrote them down, and she brought it all to life! Not only does it all look cute, it tasted amazing! 

Desert Table

Food Cards I printed off from Pinterest. Check out my page for more fun ideas! www.pinterest.com/MatracaTaylor

Handmade confetti from a darling Mickey cutout straight from Hobby Lobby!

Pluto's Pretzels (thanks Pinterest free printable!)

Pete's Popcorn, complete with Mickey popcorn buckets

Rice Krispie Treats that were almost too cute to eat! 

Minnie's Sweets and Daisy's Vegetable Garden 

Donald's Cheese and Quackers

Goofy's Grapes

Minnie Cupcakes

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