Brody’s first birthday party was perfect, you guys!! Not only did everyone who was there enjoy themselves, but it was incredibly obvious that the Brodster had the BEST time amongst all his friends and loved ones! He usually is really quiet around a lot of people but he totally ate up every second of all the attention being on him! Success! 

Because I have so much to say about the whole entire shin dig, I am going to split up the posts I write about it into 4 categories: the planning, the party details, the goodie bags, and the smash cake. This is the first installment… and it’s all about the planning! 

THE THEME: Immediately when I started thinking about the par-tayyy, I knew it would be all about CARS! Isaiah’s always been obsessed with them so naturally, we decorated a car-themed nursery for the Brodster. It was a pretty simple decision to make sure the party incorporated EVERYTHING having to do with cars as well, just because they’ve been such a prominent thread in Brody’s first year of life! And nooooo, the theme had NOTHING to do with the movie, Cars, thankyouverymuch.

THE EVENT SPACE:
Brody’s #1 took place at Kidville in Chicago. If you’ve never heard of this adorable kids playspace before, I am glad that I am the one who gets to introduce you to it! First of all, they have a ton of different locations and I am sure more and more will be opening up soon. Currently, there are facilities in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, Nevada, New York and Texas. Obviously I can only speak for the Chicago location but one of the reasons why I loved it right off the bat is because it’s very clean! And that’s not always the case with kids event spaces. Another reason why I wanted to have the party at Kidville is because I knew Brody’s party was going to be in the winter, and I wanted to make sure parking would be easy for all our guests. The location in Chicago has free parking in an attached garage! Perfect! 

I really appreciated that they provided the big sheet cake, cups, plates, napkins, plastic silverware, and balloons, too; and did so to go along with the theme of the party. These were a few less things that I needed to worry about.

On top of all these positives, the event planner who I worked with was amazing, and that was important to me. Brody and I had went to a few classes prior to the party and each of the “teachers” were extremely nice and great with the babies. All of these things solidified to me that having Brody’s first birthday party at Kidville was a good choice! We would have another party there in a heartbeat!!

THE INVITATIONS:
Obviously I wanted the invitations to be car themed! I had ordered Brody’s birth announcements from Shutterfly and they were absolutely perfect, so I thought I would look there again, this time at their birthday invitation selection. I found the most adorable car themed invite in a matter of minutes! 

My only problem was that the invitation I found included space for a photo, which I could have done without, only because I was lazy and didn’t want to take time out of the day to do a whole photoshoot. Well, I loved the invite so much that I decided it was worth it. I took some pics of the Brodster one afternoon and after looking through them, I ended up with another dilemma… I loved two photos and couldn’t decide which one to go with!! Shoot! What’s a mom to do? Ummm, order half the invites with one photo and half with the other?? Don’t laugh but that’s exactly what I did! I’m kind of ridiculous like that {hey, at least I can admit it}.

WHAT BRODY WORE: 
My little hipster wore a really cool hipster outfit… obviously. His “I’m This Many” raglan tee is from VicariousClothing and his INSANELY COOL ripped black skinny jeans {called the OG Black Skinnies} are from FarmFreshDenim; both shops can be found on Etsy.

AND GET THIS: FarmFreshDenim has been nice enough to provide my readers with a *coupon code* if you purchase anything from their shop!!! Use the code IADORE {all caps} for 20% off ANYTHING!! You guys, their jeans for the littles are too cool for school. I’m obsessed! Thank you SO much to FarmFreshDenim for being so generous!! 

He also wore grey camo Freshly Picked Moccs {that particular style is no longer available but I love the navy ones} and his hair in a mohawk, of course =) I use this baby hair gel {tons of people ask me so I thought I would share!}

DINNER:
Multigrain pizza from Whole Foods. Just because I can’t eat it doesn’t mean everyone else should be deprived! Apparently it was a big hit, as people were coming up to me all night (and texting me the next day) telling me how much they loved it! Big shoutout to my friend Jeri who told me about their delicious pizza. Who knew?!?

CAKE FOR THE GUESTS:
As I previously mentioned, Kidville provided the cake for everyone from Cake Bros Bakery and since we booked the party in October, they were running a special that we could have a photo on the cake at no extra charge! Everyone who attended, and I mean EVERYONE was going crazy over this cake! This is when having a gluten allergy gets difficult because if I’m being honest, I would have liked to at least tried a bite! Apparently it was absolutely DELICIOUS! And while it wasn’t an over-the-top cake with all the bells and whistles, it was really adorable and perfect for our needs! Yumm!!

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So that pretty much sums up the first stages of the party planning! Stay tuned for part 2 of Brody’s first birthday party blog posts, all about the details! I’m going to literally showcase EVERYTHING I created having to do with cars, will tell you all about the decorations, and touch on what the kids did at the party! I’m excited to share all these fun details with you!! 

[bctt tweet=”Brody’s #BirthdayParty Part 1 – with a 20% off discount code to @farmfreshdenim!”]

I would love to know what your favorite part of any party planning process is… tell me in the comments!!