This was such a fun party to plan, and the teddy bear’s picnic first birthday theme is perfect for celebrating the big ONE! With most children this age still crawling, toys on picnic blankets and cuddly teddy bears are perfect! This makes for a great morning or afternoon tea party, and the colours can be easily adapted to suit your taste.
Decor
With this theme, a few simple things made all the difference! A balloon arch was the feature of the party, in our theme colours of blue and yellow. More helium balloons were hung along the white garden fence, and blue gingham and hessian bunting were strung around the party. The food table was our centrepiece, topped with a gingham tablecloth, fake grass table runner, teddy bears and a variety of serving platters (timber definitely brings in the picnic theme!). Plenty of vases full of daisies brought a garden picnic feel to the party.
Food
Anything and everything that fit our picnic theme was in! Honey joys, chocolate coated marshmallows with tiny teddies, sandwiches in triangles (and a few teddy shapes!), paw print cookies, a fruit platter and teddy bear race cars all went down a treat with our guests.
Drink station
For a bit of fun, and a bonus takehome gift for guests, teddy bear bottles with a cute straw were set up with name tags allowing guests to help themselves to the water jug. There were a few sneaky “adult only” beverages too!
Keepsakes and thank yous
As a special keepsake to remember those who helped celebrate the first birthday, we had a hardcover copy of “We’re going on a bear hunt” out for guests to leave a message or sign. It’s such a lovely keepsake to look back on and it’s one of his favourite stories! To thank our lovely guests for joining us, everyone got to take home a little goody bag filled with bubbles, tiny teddies, stickers and playdoh!
Cake
This is what I am the most proud of – the cake!! I’ve always wanted to make the birthday cake when it came to having a children’s birthday party and I can’t believe I pulled it off! While there are so many amazing and elaborate cakes around, to me there is nothing better than a classic cake made by mum (even better if it’s from the Women’s Weekly cook book). It doesn’t need to be fancy, and this was actually really easy to make.
Item specific details
- Backdrop banner: AliXpress
- Hessian bags: AliXpress
- Book: We’re going on a bear hunt
- Drink bottles: Kelvin Trading
- Drink dispenser: Maxwell & Williams Aloha Pineapple Drink Dispenser 10.3L
