Playful Rooted

We had such a fun birthday party for our little Sawyer boy last week!

I went back and forth on whether to even have a party this year, but ultimately I decided to do it, and I’m SO glad I did! It was really special, especially during this difficult season, to have our people here to celebrate our darling little man. We kept it to a small group of friends and family; some people wore masks; we had plenty of space for people to distance themselves if they felt so inclined, etc. It was great and so, so needed. I would have been heartbroken not to throw a first birthday party since Sawyer is definitely-maybe-probably my last baby!

I chose The Very Hungry Caterpillar for the theme (based on the book by Eric Carle) because our S has always been a Very Hungry boy. He’s such a deliciously chunky baby! I thought it was a really clever, original theme, and then I looked online and realized it’s actually a super common one for a first birthday. Ha! Oh well. It made finding decorations easy.

I kept the decor pretty simple and hung some fun decorations from the mantle. If you haven’t read the book and don’t know the reference, these are a few of the foods the very hungry caterpillar eats his way through on his journey to becoming a beautiful butterfly. 😉

I also made this caterpillar using a red paper lantern and alternating green ones. Time consuming, but easy! I added black pipe cleaners for the antennae and legs and then just cut out some eyes and a mouth from black and brown construction paper. I hung the caterpillar from the curtain rod using fishing line, and it worked out great!

This streamer banner took FOREVER to make, but in total, it cost $4, so that’s still a win if you ask me. Bonus: Sawyer ripped it down after the party and crumpled it up for many minutes. Let’s call that sensory play. 😉

For food, I thought it would be fun to do kind of a picnicky theme since some of the foods the hungry caterpillar eats in the book would go along with that.

We had:

• Watermelon
• Apple slices with what I call Crack Dip; this is just 1:1 brown rice syrup and peanut butter mixed together and warmed up. So. GOOD.
• Pasta salad that was loosely based on this 15-minute recipe.
• This cashew queso, which I’ve served at pretty much every party I’ve hosted since 2011! Always a hit, even with people who eat dairy. (Hint: I never use the nutritional yeast because I hate that stuff. It’s perfect without it!)
• Vegan Funfetti cupcakes. YESSS.
• Chocolate cake using this vegan cupcake recipe; I baked it in an 8″ round pan and it turned out great. I didn’t make the frosting since this was a party for kids, and not even adults need that much sugar! I just used one batch of vanilla frosting to do both the cupcakes and the chocolate cake. Worked a treat! (Haha, bad pun. Apologies.)
• These spinach pinwheels, sooo good with Kite Hill almond cream cheese!

And for the birthday boy, I made this healthy smash cake! I used coconut whipped cream for the “frosting,” and I wasn’t sure how the consistency would work, but it held up surprisingly well! What I cropped out of this photo (since I’m no longer sharing photos of my babies’ faces here) is Sawyer bawling his eyes out over his mother baking, decorating, and serving him a cake. How dare I!

We opened gifts, the kids played and laughed and ran around the yard, the adults chatted and ate and relaxed, and I just had such a good time. So nice to celebrate the littlest love of our lives surrounded by some of our most special people. ❤

We really missed those who couldn’t make it, but I’m so grateful to everyone who came! Happy, happy birthday, baby boy! Your mama sure loves you.

xo!