Saturday November 10 was Noah’s birthday and also the day of her party.
We celebrated it safari style! Mainly because back in July my mom and I found this cute dress that I totally had to plan the party around. Isn’t that how every girl plans a party? Around their outfit.
It was perfect though because once I started looking around I noticed that Noah had lots of safari themed animals and toys that would work great as decorations for the party.
Which meant we had to invite Armstrong the ape….
as well as friends and family.
My sister, Lauren, who owns LH Formal Design, one of the sponsors here at Color Transformed Family, created her invitation. Her inspiration for the card came from Noah’s dress. It turned out so cute!
A safari theme party was perfect though because I got to do what I like best… make the most of what I have on hand for decorations. I ended up spending three dollars total for decorations (not counting food, napkins, and cups)!
So where did my three dollars go? Towards wrapping paper for leaves on the palm trees!
(That’s ML’s sis in the pic. She’s got a little one on the way and we are excited because it will be Noah’s first girl cousin!)
Seriously, the palm trees were my favorite part of the decorations and I may have been a little sad when I took them down the other day. I might have run a few scenarios in my head of ways to incorporate them into the Christmas decorations. You know… a Hawaiian themed Christmas or something but in the end decided it was best to take them down.
I’ll be back later with a detailed post of how these trees of palms came to be and how they were so inexpensive and easy to create. Thankfully, the rest of the decorations I had lying around. Plus my mom loaned me her coconut bowls and made the beautiful birthday banner for Noah.
Which was nice because I totally didn’t have time to make one. Preparing for this party was way more time consuming than I thought it would be. Part of it was because ML and I had a few projects to finish up around the house but the other part was preparing all the food and gathering supplies. Am I the only one whose plans always work better and quicker in my head than actual life?
The cookies and cream cupcakes above were one of two varieties that I made from scratch for the party. The others were banana cupcakes with lemon icing (Noah’s favorite)!
They were both delicious and a big hit with the party guests. The big secret is that they were both vegan! Yep, that right. Vegan! ML and I aren’t vegan or even vegetarians but for the most part Noah has been a vegetarian up until this point and ML’s parents are vegan. This way they were able to enjoy all the treats at the party. Well, all except the animal crackers! Haha!
I found the recipe for the banana cupcakes with lemon icing this Summer back when I fell in love with Chloe Coscarelli’s cookbook (read my review on it here). The cookies and cream cupcake recipe I just found through a Google search and trusted the reader’s reviews on it. They were right… the cupcakes were amazing!
Keeping with the safari theme, I tried to incorporate simple foods that children could eat and that we associate with Noah’s safari animal friends. For instance peanuts for elephants.
Clementines for gorillas and bananas for apes. My sister even made cute little place cards for each food and my personal favorite… one for the coffee table that read: “Beware of small animals that like to prey on abandoned food and drinks.” It was a gentle reminder to the adults that little like to grab at anything within reaching distance.
I got the idea to use the grapes and strawberries on skewers from Pinterest. It was an easy way to add vertical color to the table and to serve fruit. We also had other simple snacks like dried cranberries, raisins, pecans, almonds, and animal crackers. All of which were a big hit with the little ones.
If our family had a special number it would have to be “10”. Ten because Noah was born on the 10th of November and because we were married on the 10th of March. Which works out perfectly for special occasions like this because ML gives me flowers every month on the tenth!
I thought these were very appropriate for the party!
Noah had a great time at her party and I wish I had more pictures to share of the actual party and of her opening presents but I was just too busy to snap any. Thankfully, there are plenty of family members that caught some of the precious moments.
It was so much fun planning her special day and I look forward to getting to do it all over again next year! What special themes have you used for a little one’s big day? Do you have any tips to share for keeping the party costs down? What is your favorite way to celebrate your birthday now?
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Looks like the party was a hit & those palm trees are awesome!
Thanks! I knew for months I wanted palm trees but it wasn’t until the week of the party I finally figured out how to make them. So glad it turned out great though.
Adorable! Happy birthday to Noah!
Thank you! I don’t think it has fully hit me that she is one. Ahh! They grow up so fast… and she’s still a baby.
Cute party! I really love the little animals on the cupcakes!
Thanks! I looked everywhere for those. Who knew little toy animals would be so hard to find. I guess these techno babies just don’t know a good toy when they see it. Haha!
For my oldest grandson’s 9th birthday this year, he wanted to invite his 8 member Boy Scout troop and make it a “Discovery” party. My daughter didn’t know what to do. We decided to do a few science experiments. I bought a box of “Break Your Own Geodes”, brought some old socks and a hammer. Then we had another area where the boys dug in the sand for buried “treasure” (which were polished rocks and small toys we bought). We also set up an area where they could make their own “Play-doh”. I volunteered to sew the treat bags from clear vinyl in an envelope style with Velcro closures so the boys could take their treasures home with them in a see-through, reusable (free!) bag. We had plenty of snacks like Goldfish in three flavors, chicken nuggets and cake, of course! I also made a banner out of Boy Scout fabric that I found. It was yellow with the Boy Scout logo in blue all over it and I cut out blue letters and sewed them onto the banner so that it read, “Explore & Discover”. I decided to just have the banner read that way so that his Scout troop could use the banner later. It was great and all the boys had so much fun!
Wow! That sounds like an awesome party! I bet they had loads of fun.
The palm trees are AMAZING!! I love that you used what you had already. So creative!!
Thanks Katie! Didn’t think there was really a need to spend a bunch since Noah won’t even remember it.
Happy Birthday to Noah! It looks like she had a wonderful party! I can’t believe you only spent $3 on decorations; those palm trees are awesome =)
Thanks Kelly! I was working with a really tight budget because I didn’t realize the cost of food would add up so quickly. It was fun though and I enjoyed the challenge.
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